Exposure to Refugees and Voting for the Far-Right: (Unexpected) Results from Austria

Steinmayr, Andreas

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2750273

Cited by 48 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These two parties are the opposites on the immigration policy dimension. We further see a relative decrease in the vote share of the Conservative Party, which is the opposite effect of Steinmayr (2016), who finds that a shock on the extensive margin caused a shift from the main anti‐immigration party to the conservative party.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 64%

“…The status change might be particularly important since it involves a totally new situation for the municipalities, it is a more significant change in local experiences than normal shifts along the intensive margin. To our knowledge, Steinmayr (2016) is the only previous study of the electoral effects at the extensive margin. Like us, he compares Austrian municipalities that received refugees for the first time after the 2015 migration crisis to those who did not.…”

Section: Theoretical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Voter responses to refugee arrivals: Effects of settlement policy

Finseraas

Strøm

2021

European J Political Res

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In this paper we leverage a sudden shift in refugee settlement policy to study the electoral consequences of refugee settlements. After the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election, the newly elected right-wing government made a concerted effort to spread newly arrived immigrants across the country, with the consequence that some municipalities with limited experience in settling refugees accepted to do so. We propose that such policy changes have political consequences, increasing the salience of immigration issues and shifting voters' preferences to the right. We further propose that successful refugee integration can move (parts of) the electorate to the left, with stronger political polarization as a possible effect of the policy change. Applying difference-in-differences techniques, we find no evidence of unidirectional shifts in voter sentiments, but support for the hypothesis of stronger political polarization.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 64%

Section: Theoretical Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voter responses to refugee arrivals: Effects of settlement policy

Finseraas

Strøm

2021

European J Political Res

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“…Research conducted in Austria, for example, found that although voting for far-right parties has recently increased overall, those communities that were actually hosting refugees, and thus where members of the host community had the greatest likelihood of actually encountering and interacting with refugees, showed the lowest increase in far-right support (Steinmayr, 2016). In a mixed-methods study in Australia (Turoy-Smith et al, 2013), few of the participants reported having had any contact with refugees and many expressed confusion about who refugees were.…”

Section: Anxiety and Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

Refugee integration: Research and policy.

Hynie

2018

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

114

103

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More people are currently displaced from their homes by war and conflict than ever previously recorded, and many are displaced for decades. As a result, there is increasing interest in promoting stable, if not permanent, solutions. The success of these solutions is in part evaluated by how well refugees are integrating into their new communities. Integration, in its broadest sense, refers to inclusion and participation, both economically and socially. Although the focus is often on how refugees change to integrate, successful integration requires a social context that supports inclusion and participation. The focus of this special issue is on the ways in which policies of settlement at the international, national, regional, and local level support or hinder integration by affecting the social context. These policies can affect the social context by directly limiting economic and social participation, but also by intentionally or unintentionally shaping community attitudes. The articles in this special issue consider the impact of policies on the social context along the entire migration pathway, from asylum seeking and refugee camps, to resettlement in new countries or return to countries of origin. The articles come from a range of disciplines and countries but a common theme that emerges is how policies shape refugee identities, stereotypes and interactions in ways that then affect community welcome. These articles shed light on the importance of policies and initiatives that challenge our attitudes and beliefs about refugees as an important element for successful integration. Public Significance StatementRefugee settlement policies at the national and local level influence refugee integration by shaping refugees' ability to participate socially and economically. They also have long-term impact on integration by shaping community attitudes through their impact on stereotypes, perceptions of threat, and opportunities for positive interactions.

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“…What is often referred to as the 2015 European refugee crisis was the largest influx of refugees to Europe in the post-WWII time period. 1 Despite large differences in how European countries were exposed to the refugee crisis in 2015, considerable political conflict and polarization about refugees and immigration marked societies across the European continent afterwards (Dinas et al 2016;Steinmayr 2016;Dustmann et al 2018;Hangartner et al 2019;Mader & Schoen 2019). Predictions made by the UNHCR show more refugees will continue to need places to settle as conflicts in both the Middle East and North Africa fail to reach lasting solutions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, studies of the electoral effects of refugee migration reach partially contradictory conclusions. Where Steinmayr (2016) finds that the presence of refugees reduced the support for the Austrian anti-immigrant right party, Dustmann et al (2018), Mader and Schoen (2019) and Dinas et al (2016) find that as the share of refugees in a community increased, the vote for anti-immigrant parties grew in Denmark, Germany and Greece.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The scope of exclusionary public response to the European refugee crisis

Nordø

Ivarsflaten

2021

European J Political Res

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We know from previous research that an exclusionary reaction in public opinion is likely following a sudden and large-scale influx of refugees of the sort experienced in many European countries in 2015. Yet, we know much less about the scope of these expected reactions. This article makes a conceptual and empirical contribution to the analysis of the scope of exclusionary reactions following a refugee crisis. Conceptually, we distinguish between three scope dimensions: substantive reach, duration and politicization. Empirically, we evaluate each of the scope dimensions using seven-wave panel-data collected before, during and after the large-scale influx of refugees to Norway. We find that the expected exclusionary reaction (a) spilled over to opinion about immigration broadly speaking; (b) endured in that it lasted long after the situation in Norway had been brought under control; (c) encompassed voters of all political stripes. Nevertheless, we also document an important limitation to the scope of the reaction: The sudden influx of refugees to Norway did not cause a permanent shift in public opinion. Approximately two years after the situation had been brought under control, opinion about both refugee rights and immigration generally had reverted back to pre-crisis baseline levels. Interestingly, the conceptual and empirical analysis suggests that public opinion dynamics following a sudden and large-scale influx of refugees is similar to that found in response to other forms of large national or international crises.

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Exposure to Refugees and Voting for the Far-Right: (Unexpected) Results from Austria

Cited by 48 publications

References 19 publications

Voter responses to refugee arrivals: Effects of settlement policy

Voter responses to refugee arrivals: Effects of settlement policy

Refugee integration: Research and policy.

The scope of exclusionary public response to the European refugee crisis

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