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Refugees and social capital: Evidence from Northern Lebanon

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  • Hager, Anselm
  • Valasek, Justin

Abstract

Despite numerous studies on the social and political impact of refugees in Europe, we have very little systematic evidence on the impact of refugee settlement on social cohesion in the developing world. Using data gathered in Northern Lebanon, we show that increased salience of the "refugee crisis" decreases natives' trust and prosocial preferences toward refugees, suggesting a negative impact of mass refugee settlement. However, this negative impact is driven exclusively by respondents with no individual exposure to refugees. In fact, despite concerns that refugee settlements may result in local conflict, we find that individual proximity to refugees is positively correlated with trust towards refugees, and that proximity has a positive spillover effect on social capital towards other migrants. This implies that, while the refugee crisis may have had a negative impact on social cohesion, this negative impact is mitigated in areas where natives are in contact with refugees.

Suggested Citation

  • Hager, Anselm & Valasek, Justin, 2020. "Refugees and social capital: Evidence from Northern Lebanon," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2020-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2020301
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    Cited by:

    1. Kai Barron & Heike Harmgart & Steffen Huck & Sebastian O. Schneider & Matthias Sutter, 2023. "Discrimination, Narratives, and Family History: An Experiment with Jordanian Host and Syrian Refugee Children," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 1008-1016, July.
    2. Maja Adena & Anselm Hager, 2025. "Does Online Fundraising Increase Charitable Giving? A Nationwide Field Experiment on Facebook," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(4), pages 3216-3231, April.

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    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

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