Refugee reception, extreme-right voting, and compositional amenities: Evidence from Italian municipalities

We use data from Italy to study the political and social impact of a refugee reception policy (SPRAR) directly managed by local governments, whose features recall the conditions of the contact theory (Allport, 1954). Instrumental variables estimates indicate that municipalities that opened a refugee...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gamalerio, Matteo, Luca, Mario, Romarri, Alessio, Viskanic, Max
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/213002
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/213002
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Eleccions locals
Extrema dreta
Itàlia
Refugiats
Partits polítics
Local elections
right-wing extremists
Italy
Refugees
Political parties
Descripción
Sumario:We use data from Italy to study the political and social impact of a refugee reception policy (SPRAR) directly managed by local governments, whose features recall the conditions of the contact theory (Allport, 1954). Instrumental variables estimates indicate that municipalities that opened a refugee center between the 2013 and 2018 national elections experienced a change in the vote shares of extreme-right parties that is approximately 7 percentage points lower compared to municipalities that did not open a refugee center. We document that the positive impact of SPRARs on ‘‘compositional amenities’’ (i.e., local schools) and population growth allows explaining the negative impact on anti-immigrant prejudice. Finally, we provide evidence of spillovers in prejudice reduction in neighboring municipalities without a SPRAR.