Media coverage and immigration worries: Econometric evidence

Abstract

This paper empirically explores the link between mass media coverage of migration and immigration worries. Using detailed data on media coverage in Germany, we show that the amount of media reports regarding migration issues is positively associated with concerns about immigration among the German population. The association is robust to the inclusion of time-variant individual control variables and individual fixed-effects. We employ media spillovers from the neighboring country of Switzerland, which occur due to referendum decisions on immigration as an instrumental variable to address endogeneity concerns. The IV estimates suggest that media coverage has a causal impact on immigration worries. Exploring heterogeneous effects between respondents, the results reveal that the link between media reports and immigration worries is particularly relevant for women and respondents active in the workforce.

“The mother of all political problems”? On asylum seekers and elections

“…Our results fail to corroborate Steinmayr's (2020) analysis of the contact hypothesis, which predicts that interpersonal contact would dampen hostility toward asylum seekers and by extension dampen support for anti-immigrant far right parties. Steinmayr (2020) notes that in testing this hypothesis, it is conceptually important to distinguish between effects on the macro level, such as those transmitted via the media and political campaigns (Benesch et al 2019), and the micro level, as are transmitted through direct encounters between people. His analysis of election outcomes among rather small communities in Austria uncovers persuasive evidence that such direct encounters change voter perceptions about immigrants and draws them away from far right parties.…”

Does the Internet Change Attitudes Towards Immigrants? Evidence From Spain

“…Ensuring these gures are reported correctly is extremely important because, if better informed, citizens are more likely to support more open immigration policies and higher levels of redistribution (Grigorie et al, 2020; Facchini et al, 2016). Thus, the role the media play in informing citizens about immigration and in shaping their beliefs and attitudes towards immigrants is critical (Benesch et al, 2019). In this paper, I…”

Opening-up Trajectories and Economic Recovery: Lessons after the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This points to the importance of diffusion of information as a factor driving individual behaviors. In fact, individual attitudes and perceptions have also been shown to depend on media coverage, for instance, on views on immigration (Benesch et al, 2019), domestic violence (Banerjee et al 2019), fertility choices (La Ferrara et al, 2012) and voting (DellaVigna and Kaplan, 2007;Martin and Yurukoglu, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception.…”