Diversity without Adversity? Ethnic Bias Towards Refugees in a Co-Religious Society

Getmansky, Anna; Matakos, K.; Sinmazdemir, Tolga

Abstract

What shapes the host population’s willingness to accept refugees into social, economic, and political life in their country? We argue that refugees’ ethnicity plays a key role—both directly and indirectly—in shaping support for having refugees as neighbors and for granting them a work permit or citizenship. Fielding a conjoint experiment in Turkey (N = 2,362), we find that locals discriminate against Syrian Arab and Kurdish refugees compared to Turkomans. Although a university degree, social ties with locals, and knowledge of language boost prorefugee attitudes, ethnic bias may attenuate their effect. For example, local language knowledge increases support for Arab refugee profiles, but only when it comes to granting them a work permit, but not having them as neighbors or granting citizenship. In contrast, it increases support for profiles of Turkomans and Kurds in all the three domains. Thus, strategies such as learning the local language may not advance all refugees in all domains.

Citation

Getmansky, A., Matakos, K., & Sinmazdemir, T. (2024). Diversity without Adversity? Ethnic Bias Towards Refugees in a Co-Religious Society. International Studies Quarterly, 68(2), Article sqae031. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqae031

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 17, 2023
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 2, 2026
• Journal: International Studies Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0020-8833
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2478
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 68
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: sqae031
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqae031