Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany

In 2015, Germany welcomed close to one million asylum seekers and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, the Western Balkans and elsewhere. Although the country was often praised for its welcome culture, the inflow has spurred a debate about identity, s...

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Main Authors:	Albarosa, Emanuele, Elsner, Benjamin
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:	REFUGEES ASYLUM MIGRATION SOCIAL COHESION ANTI-IMMIGRANT VIOLENCE FORCED DISPLACEMENT
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/830181643248457941/Forced-Migration-Social-Cohesion-and-Conflict-The-2015-Refugee-Inflow-in-Germany http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36914

id	okr-10986-36914
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-369142022-02-04T05:10:41Z Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany Albarosa, Emanuele Elsner, Benjamin REFUGEES ASYLUM MIGRATION SOCIAL COHESION ANTI-IMMIGRANT VIOLENCE FORCED DISPLACEMENT In 2015, Germany welcomed close to one million asylum seekers and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, the Western Balkans and elsewhere. Although the country was often praised for its welcome culture, the inflow has spurred a debate about identity, social cohesion and the limits of multiculturalism. This paper analyzes the effect of this inflow on various dimensions of social cohesion. To separate causation from correlation, it exploits the fact that asylum seekers in Germany are allocated to local areas based on an area’s tax revenues and population several years prior. Therefore, the allocation is unrelated to current economic, political or social conditions. Based on survey data as well as data scraped from newspapers, the paper documents two sets of results. First, it finds no effect on self-reported indicators of trust and perceived fairness, and a small negative effect on and attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast, it finds that the refugee inflow led to an increased incidence of anti-immigrant violence that lasted for about two years. This increase is larger in areas with higher unemployment and greater support for right-wing parties. 2022-02-03T14:51:41Z 2022-02-03T14:51:41Z 2022-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/830181643248457941/Forced-Migration-Social-Cohesion-and-Conflict-The-2015-Refugee-Inflow-in-Germany http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36914 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9913 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Middle East and North Africa South Asia Germany
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	REFUGEES ASYLUM MIGRATION SOCIAL COHESION ANTI-IMMIGRANT VIOLENCE FORCED DISPLACEMENT
spellingShingle	REFUGEES ASYLUM MIGRATION SOCIAL COHESION ANTI-IMMIGRANT VIOLENCE FORCED DISPLACEMENT Albarosa, Emanuele Elsner, Benjamin Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Middle East and North Africa South Asia Germany
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9913
description	In 2015, Germany welcomed close to one million asylum seekers and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, the Western Balkans and elsewhere. Although the country was often praised for its welcome culture, the inflow has spurred a debate about identity, social cohesion and the limits of multiculturalism. This paper analyzes the effect of this inflow on various dimensions of social cohesion. To separate causation from correlation, it exploits the fact that asylum seekers in Germany are allocated to local areas based on an area’s tax revenues and population several years prior. Therefore, the allocation is unrelated to current economic, political or social conditions. Based on survey data as well as data scraped from newspapers, the paper documents two sets of results. First, it finds no effect on self-reported indicators of trust and perceived fairness, and a small negative effect on and attitudes towards immigrants. In contrast, it finds that the refugee inflow led to an increased incidence of anti-immigrant violence that lasted for about two years. This increase is larger in areas with higher unemployment and greater support for right-wing parties.
format	Working Paper
author	Albarosa, Emanuele Elsner, Benjamin
author_facet	Albarosa, Emanuele Elsner, Benjamin
author_sort	Albarosa, Emanuele
title	Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
title_short	Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
title_full	Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
title_fullStr	Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
title_full_unstemmed	Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany
title_sort	forced migration, social cohesion and conflict : the 2015 refugee inflow in germany
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2022
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/830181643248457941/Forced-Migration-Social-Cohesion-and-Conflict-The-2015-Refugee-Inflow-in-Germany http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36914
_version_	1764486154617356288

Forced Migration, Social Cohesion and Conflict : The 2015 Refugee Inflow in Germany

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