How International Aid Shapes Local Attitudes toward Refugees

• In Event: The Refugee Crisis from Both Sides: Attitudes towards and of Syrian Refugees

Abstract

A key challenge for countries with large refugee populations is to establish policies that help refugees while ensuring that host country nationals do not develop negative attitudes towards them. In principle, international aid programs can help to address this dilemma by generating additional resource flows into the country. Can international aid induce more altruistic attitudes and behaviors towards refugees in the local population and, if so, which types of aid programs are more or less likely to do so? Based on a two-month randomized control trial in Turkey with multiple survey waves conducted using an online platform, we explore whether distinct types of aid, notably cash transfers, vocational training, and social cohesion programs, have different effects on local population attitudes and altruistic behavior vis-a-vis refugees, our main outcomes of interest. We further assess whether these effects vary depending on whether the funder is the host government or international donor and if international aid is framed in terms of helping the local economy versus the refugee population. Understanding the conditions under which international aid policies successfully integrate refugees in host countries may improve the effectiveness of programs aimed at supporting refugees and nationals in receiving countries alike.

Authors

• Ahmet Akbiyik, Harvard University

• Melani Cammett, Harvard University