Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T04:51:08.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Aid Reduce Anti-refugee Violence? Evidence from Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2020

M. CHRISTIAN LEHMANN Open the ORCID record for M. CHRISTIAN LEHMANN [Opens in a new window]  and
DANIEL T. R. MASTERSON Open the ORCID record for DANIEL T. R. MASTERSON [Opens in a new window]
M. CHRISTIAN LEHMANN*
Affiliation:
University of Brasilia
DANIEL T. R. MASTERSON*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
M. Christian Lehmann Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Brasilia, clehmann@unb.br.
Daniel T. R. Masterson Postdoctoral Fellow, Immigration Policy Lab, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, dmasters@stanford.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Anti-refugee violence often accompanies refugee migration, but the factors that fuel or mitigate that violence remain poorly understood, including the common policy response in such settings of humanitarian aid. Existing theory and policy debates predict that aid to refugees exacerbates anti-refugee violence by increasing hosts’ resentment toward refugees. In contrast, however, aid may reduce violence in ways such as increasing host communities’ well-being through more demand for local goods and services and refugees sharing aid. We test for the sign and mechanisms of this relationship. Evidence from original survey data and a regression discontinuity design suggests that cash transfers to Syrian refugees in Lebanon did not increase anti-refugee violence, and if anything they reduced violence. Exploring why aid does not increase hostility, we find evidence that aid allows recipients to indirectly compensate locals through higher demand for local goods and services, directly benefit locals by offering help and sharing aid, and reduce contact with potential aggressors.

Type
Letter
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 114 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 1335 - 1342
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We benefited from conversations, comments, and suggestions of Peter Aronow, Dominik Hangartner, Dean Karlan, David Laitin, Jason Lyall, Chris Udry, Elisabeth J. Wood, and several anonymous referees. We thank the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for collaboration and Chris Blattman and Juliette Seban for their support in the early stages of this project. Part of this work was completed while Lehmann was visiting the Yale Economic Growth Center and while Masterson was visiting the American University of Beirut Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy, which the authors thank for their hospitality. We are grateful for funding through DFID grant agreement number 204007-111. We declare that we have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Replication files are available at the American Political Science Review Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/5LAZ54.

References

Alrababa’h, Ala’, Dillon, Andrea, Williamson, Scott, Hainmueller, Jens, Hangartner, Dominik, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2019. “Attitudes toward Migrants in a Highly-impacted Economy: Evidence from the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Jordan.” IPL Working Paper No.19-01.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bansak, Kirk, Hainmueller, Jens, and Hangartner, Dominik. 2016. “How Economic, Humanitarian, and Religious Concerns Shape European Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers.” Science 354 (6309): 217–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benček, David, and Strasheim, Julia. 2016. “Refugees Welcome? A Dataset on Anti-refugee Violence in Germany.” Research & Politics 3 (4): 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Hutchings, Vincent L.. 1996. “Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer’s Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context.” American Sociological Review 61 (6): 951–972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, Alex, Chu, Tiffany S., Curtis, Justin, and Ghosn, Faten. 2019. “Violence and the Perception of Risk Associated with Hosting Refugees.” Public Choice 178 (3): 473–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bundesministerium des Innern 2014. Verfassungsschutzbericht 2014, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Bundesministerium des Innern 2015. Verfassungsschutzbericht 2015, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Dahlberg, Matz, Edmark, Karin, and Lundqvist, Heléne. 2012. “Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution.” Journal of Political Economy 120 (1): 41–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dancygier, Rafaela M. 2010. Immigration and Conflict in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dustmann, Christian, Vasiljeva, Kristine, and Damm, Anna Piil. 2018. “Refugee Migration and Electoral Outcomes.” The Review of Economic Studies 86 (5): 2035–2091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, Armin, Kuhn, Andreas, and Zweimueller, Josef. 2011. “Unemployment and Right-wing Extremist Crime.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics 113 (2): 260–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghosn, Faten, Braithwaite, Alex, and Chu, Tiffany S.. 2019. “Violence, Displacement, Contact, and Attitudes toward Hosting Refugees.” Journal of Peace Research 56 (1): 118–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hangartner, Dominik, Dinas, Elias, Marbach, Moritz, Matakos, Konstantinos, and Xefteris, Dimitrios. 2019. “Does Exposure to the Refugee Crisis Make Natives More Hostile?” American Political Science Review 113 (2): 442–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imbens, Guido W., and Lemieux, Thomas. 2008. “Regression Discontinuity Designs: A Guide to Practice.” Journal of Econometrics 142 (2): 615–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jäckle, Sebastian, and König, Pascal D.. 2017. “The Dark Side of the German ‘Welcome Culture’: Investigating the Causes behind Attacks on Refugees in 2015.” West European Politics 40 (2): 223–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 1996. “Explaining the Rise of Racist and Extreme Right Violence in Western Europe: Grievances or Opportunities?” European Journal of Political Research 30 (2): 185–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marbach, Moritz, and Ropers, Guido. 2018. “Not in My Backyard: Do Increases in Immigration Cause Political Violence?” IPL Working Paper No. 18-02.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mourad, Lama. 2019. “The Local Politics of Refugee Crises: Fragmentation and the Lebanese Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis.” PhD diss. University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Onoma, Ato Kwamena. 2013. Anti-refugee Violence and African Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2019. “Regular Perceptions Survey of Social Tensions throughout Lebanon, Wave VI.” UNDP and The ARK Group.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2013. Lebanon: Economic and Social Impact Assessment of the Syrian Conflict. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Zhou, Yang-Yang. 2018. Refugee Proximity and Support for Citizenship Exclusion in Africa. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. https://www.yangyangzhou.com/s/Zhou_CitiExclusion.pdf.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Lehmann and Masterson Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/5LAZ54
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Lehmann and Masterson supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Lehmann and Masterson supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.7 MB