How does coethnicity with refugees shape their reception?

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session of the Political Behaviour Colloquium features a presentation by Niloufer Siddiqui (Albany-State University of New York).

How does coethnicity shape the reception and integration of refugees? Although most research on migrant reception has been conducted in the Global North, the majority of forced migration occurs between neighboring countries in the Global South, where host citizens and migrants often share coethnic ties. We examine the case of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where both refugee and host communities have substantial Pashtun ethnic membership. Using a survey, with embedded conjoint and vignette experiments, conducted among 3500 host citizens (of whom 2275 are Pashtun), we find that respondents significantly prefer Pashtun to non-Pashtun refugees. Additionally, compared to non-coethnics, coethnic Pashtun Pakistanis are more supportive of Afghan refugees and inclusive immigration policies. However, this preference is not uniform across coethnics – almost all of this coethnic solidarity is driven by Pashtuns living in districts where they are the ethnic minority. We further find little evidence that appealing to shared ethnic ties affects Pashtun attitudes towards refugees. Qualitative interviews and focus groups support these findings. Ultimately, we cannot assume coethnic solidarity for refugees and migrants; we find that such solidarity is conditional on coethnics’ subnational status.

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration. If you would like to receive the paper, please contact PoliticalBehaviour.Colloquium@eui.eu.