Government Targeting of Refugees in the Midst of Epidemics

Abstract

We investigate how the outbreak of epidemics can affect host governments’ targeting of refugees and violation of their physical integrity rights. We argue that governments target repression against refugees for two reasons. First, refugees are easily scapegoated for the arrival of epidemics at a time when governments are looking to shift the blame for their own poor performance. Second, crises provide circumstances for governments to engage in opportunistic repression to further their goal of coercing existing refugees to depart and deterring new refugees from arriving. Drawing upon a global dataset of countries for the years 1996 to 2015, we demonstrate that epidemic outbreaks do indeed increase the likelihood and scale of government repression targeting refugee populations. These effects are especially pronounced in countries with higher proportions of refugees hosted and in less democratic countries. Identification of this potential for government repression of refugees during epidemics is important in light of the grave scale of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest the international community should be vigilant for signs of governments’ mistreatment of vulnerable refugee populations to shift focus away from their own poor handling of crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and opportunistically advance their goal of reducing the numbers of refugees hosted locally.

Macroeconomic volatility and anti‐refugee violence in developing countries: Evidence from commodity price shocks

“…Country‐level evidence is mainly confined to Germany, where anti‐refugee violence is positively correlated with unemployment (Falk, Kuhn, & Zweimueller, 2011), political support for right‐wing parties (Jäckle & König, 2017), the local share of residents born in Germany (Entorf & Lange, 2019), local government efficiency (Ziller & Goodman, 2020), terrorist attacks (Jäckle & König, 2017), and fears of German men that more refugees make it more difficult to find female partners (Dancygier, Egami, Jamal, & Rischke, 2021). 3 Cross‐country analysis finds an association between anti‐refugee violence and epidemic outbreaks (Braithwaite, Frith, Savun, & Ghosn, 2021), liberal refugee policies (Savun, 2022), and terrorist attacks (Polo & Wucherpfennig, 2022; Savun & Gineste, 2019).…”

Iglesia en las fronteras

“…Además, la precaria situación jurídica de muchos inmigrantes ha constituido un grave problema en lo que respecta a su seguridad sanitaria, social y económica-labora (Cf. BRAITHWAITE;FRITH;SAVUN;GHOSN, 2021).…”

Public attitudes about integration and citizenship for refugees: Evidence from Turkey

“…This reality has coincided with a shift in people's expectations and attitudes toward refugees, as well as government policies and debates surrounding them. For many countries, particularly middle‐ and lower‐income ones, the persistent arrival, recent surges, and unlikely departure of refugees have contributed to the depletion of state capacity and resources on the one hand, while aggravating grievances, fears, and societal tensions among the public on the other (Benček & Strasheim, 2016; Braithwaite et al, 2022; Savun, 2022).…”