Malte Becker (Kiel Institute for the World Economy)

Country, Culture or Competition - What Drives Attitudes Towards Immigrants in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Malte Becker 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Coauteurs· es : Finja Krüger and Tobias Heidland

Résumé 

Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming an increasingly important destination for international migration. The region hosts immigrants from other African countries and other parts of the world, such as China. Given high poverty levels and weak social security systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, host populations might fear increasing competition for resources and labor, potentially resulting in negative attitudes toward immigrants. We provide the first systematic causal study of attitudes toward immigrants in Sub-Saharan African countries. Using survey experiments in Uganda and Senegal, we study both attitudes toward immigrants in general and toward specific immigrant groups. In particular, we focus on Chinese immigrants, whose increasing presence in Africa is highly controversial and politicized. We find that attitudes toward immigrants are mainly driven by sociotropic cultural and sociotropic economic concerns. Immigrants from China are seen less positively than the average immigrant despite few differences in perceived economic and cultural contribution.

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