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The Effects of 9/11 on Attitudes Toward Immigration and the Moderating Role of Education

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  • Schüller, Simone

    (German Youth Institute (DJI))

Abstract

The major event of the 9/11 terror attacks is likely to have induced an increase in anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner sentiments, not only among US residents but also beyond US borders. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and exploiting exogenous variation in interview timing throughout 2001, I find that the terror attacks in the US caused an immediate shift of around 40 percent of one within standard deviation to more negative attitudes toward immigration and resulting in a considerable decrease in concerns over xenophobic hostility among the German population. Furthermore, in exploiting within-individual variation this quasi-experiment provides evidence on the role of education in moderating the negative terrorism shock.

Suggested Citation

  • Schüller, Simone, 2012. "The Effects of 9/11 on Attitudes Toward Immigration and the Moderating Role of Education," IZA Discussion Papers 7052, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7052
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    Cited by:

    1. Deole, Sumit S., 2019. "Justice delayed is assimilation denied: Right-wing terror and immigrants' assimilation in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 69-78.
    2. Daniele Guariso, 2018. "Terrorist Attacks and Immigration Rhetoric: A Natural Experiment on British MPs," Working Paper Series 1218, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Sander WAGNER & Ivaylo D. PETEV, 2019. "The Economic Penalty of Terrorism: Increase in Discrimination Against Arabs and Muslims after Paris Attacks," Working Papers 2019-22, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    4. Andree Ehlert & Jan Seidel & Ursula Weisenfeld, 2020. "Trouble on my mind: the effect of catastrophic events on people’s worries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 951-975, August.
    5. Ahmed Elsayed & Andries Grip, 2018. "Terrorism and the integration of Muslim immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 45-67, January.
    6. Verena Dill, 2013. "Ethnic Concentration and Extreme Right-Wing Voting Behavior in West Germany," Research Papers in Economics 2013-02, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    7. Adrian Chadi & Matthias Krapf, 2017. "The Protestant Fiscal Ethic: Religious Confession And Euro Skepticism In Germany," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1813-1832, October.
    8. Helbling, Marc & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2022. "Terrorism and Migration: An Overview," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 977-996, April.
    9. Michael Jetter & David Stadelmann, 2019. "Terror per Capita," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(1), pages 286-304, July.
    10. Francesco Giavazzi & Felix Iglhaut & Giacomo Lemoli & Gaia Rubera, 2020. "Terrorist Attacks, Cultural Incidents and the Vote for Radical Parties: Analyzing Text from Twitter," Working Papers 659, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    11. Quentin David & Jean‐Benoit Pilet & Gilles Van Hamme, 2018. "Scale Matters in Contextual Analysis of Extreme Right Voting and Political Attitudes," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 509-536, November.
    12. Francesco Giavazzi & Felix Iglhaut & Giacomo Lemoli & Gaia Rubera, 2020. "Terrorist Attacks, Cultural Incidents and the Vote for Radical Parties: Analyzing Text from Twitter," NBER Working Papers 26825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Chadi, Adrian, 2015. "Concerns about the Euro and happiness in Germany during times of crisis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 126-146.
    14. Hippolyte d'Albis & Ekrame Boubtane & Dramane Coulibaly, 2022. "Global Uncertainty and International Migration To Western Europe," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 148, pages 1-28.
    15. Jan Goebel & Christian Krekel & Tim Tiefenbach & Nicolas Ziebarth, 2015. "How natural disasters can affect environmental concerns, risk aversion, and even politics: evidence from Fukushima and three European countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(4), pages 1137-1180, October.
    16. Deole, Sumit S. & Huang, Yue, 2020. "Suffering and prejudice: Do negative emotions predict immigration concerns?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 644, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Nowak, Anna, 2019. "Rally around the EU flag! Supra-nationalism in the light of Islamist terrorism," CIW Discussion Papers 5/2019, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    18. Gunn Elisabeth Birkelund & Elisabeth Ugreninov & Tak Wing Chan & Arnfinn Midtbøen & Jon Rogstad, 2017. "Do Terrorist Attacks Affect Ethnic Discrimination in the Labour Market? Evidence from Two Randomised Field Experiments," DoQSS Working Papers 17-02, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    19. Stelios Roupakias & Michael Chletsos, 2020. "Immigration and far-right voting: evidence from Greece," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(3), pages 591-617, December.
    20. Doerrenberg, Philipp & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Is soccer good for you? The motivational impact of big sporting events on the unemployed," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 66-69.
    21. Seonho Shin, 2021. "Were they a shock or an opportunity?: The heterogeneous impacts of the 9/11 attacks on refugees as job seekers—a nonlinear multi-level approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2827-2864, November.
    22. Sumit S. Deole, 2018. "Justice Delayed is Assimilation Denied: Rightwing Terror, Fear and Social Assimilation of Turkish Immigrants in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 7235, CESifo.
    23. Giavazzi, Francesco & Iglhaut, Felix & Lemoli, Giacomo & Rubera, Gaia, 2020. "Terrorist Attacks, Cultural Incidents and the Vote for Radical Parties: Analyzing Text from Twitter," CEPR Discussion Papers 14455, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    24. Sumit S. Deole, 2018. "Justice Delayed Is Assimilation Denied: Rightwing Terror, Fear and Social Assimilation of Turkish Immigrants in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1005, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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    Keywords

    September 11; education; attitudes; immigration; terrorism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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