Refugee priors
What priors and preconceptions citizens have over refugees?
Are some systematically correct or incorrect?
Attitudes toward Ukrainian and Afghan Refugees: Results from an online survey
We fielded an online nationally representative and balanced (age, gender, ethnicity and region) survey experiment through Lucid Theorem in April 2022 of 1,997 respondents to explore attitudes towards Ukrainian and Afghan refugees. Respondents were randomly assigned to two groups; each saw one of the following statements and were asked a series of follow-up questions:
“According to the United Nations, more than 2 million people have fled the recent conflict in Afghanistan. Next we will ask you a few questions about these Afghan refugees.”
“According to the United Nations, more than 2 million people have fled the recent conflict in Ukraine. Next we will ask you a few questions about these Ukrainian refugees.”
Follow-up questions to assess attitudes included:
“On a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 = completely unfavorable and 100 = completely favorable, how do you feel about these refugees?”
“The United States plans to resettle tens of thousands of these refugees across the country. To what extent do you support the resettlement of these refugees in the US?”
“How many of these refugees do you think the US should accept for resettlement?”
“How concerned or unconcerned are you about the following issues concerning the resettlement of these refugees in the United States?”
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Top line Results
Americans are more favorable to Ukrainian refugees
The average feeling thermometer value towards Ukrainian refugees was 77/100 while for Afghan refugees it was 63.7/100.
Americans are more supportive of Ukrainian resettlement
“The United States plans to resettle tens of thousands of these refugees across the country. To what extent do you support the resettlement of these refugees in the US?”
Support for Ukrainian refugee resettlement is higher than Afghan refugee resettlement by 0.37 (95% CI: [0.48,0.27]) points on a support scale.
Americans support resettlement of more Ukrainians
“How many of these refugees do you think the US should accept for resettlement?”
Americans more concerned Afghans will be a burden
“These refugees will be a burden because they will take our jobs and social benefits”
Americans more concerned Afghans won’t adopt customs
Americans more concerned Afghans will engage in crime
Priming Afghan/Ukrainian refugee affects terrorism concerns
“Which of the following statements comes closer to your views about refugees in general?”
Statement 1: Refugees will increase the likelihood of terrorism in our country Statement 2: Refugees will not increase the likelihood of terrorism in our country Neither/both equally Americans preferred Syrian refugees who are female, English-speaking and Christian on the eve of Donald Trump’s election.
Adida CL, Lo A, Platas MR (2019) Americans preferred Syrian refugees who are female, English-speaking, and Christian on the eve of Donald Trump’s election. PLoS ONE 14(10): e0222504. 20: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0222504