"The Legacy of Violence: Experience with Civil War and Support for Refugees"

Abstract:  How does the experience of political violence by members of the host community influence attitudes towards refugees? I draw on theories from social psychology and comparative politics to demonstrate the impact of political violence on preferences for migrants. Specifically, I shed light on how an individual's past experience with civil war shapes their attitudes towards refugees. Existing work suggests that exposure to conflict will lead to prosocial behavior.  I test my argument using a  conjoint experiment embedded in a survey where I ask respondents to evaluate three pairs of refugee profiles, including their reasons for migration. My analysis shows that those exposed to civil war are more prosocial and show a much higher support for refugees in comparison to those who were not exposed to conflict. However, contrary to the expectations set by post-traumatic growth theory that those with a similar experience as refugees will show a higher preference for those refugees with whom they share an experience, I do not find that individuals exposed to civil war show a significant preference for refugees fleeing conflict over other category of migrants. These results ask us to question the implication of different refugee categorizations on attitudes and behavior towards migrants. Although relevant for public policy and resource distribution, for the ordinary person, migrant categories might not have too much of an effect, especially if all migrants are perceived to fit in the same category. Furthermore, these results inform policy approaches for reducing prejudice, increasing prosocial behavior towards refugees and promoting social cohesion

 “Exposure to Refugees and Concerns about Crime: Evidence from Uganda”  (Under Review)

Abstract: Can refugees increase concerns about crime? The anxiety surrounding an influx of foreign people might be seen as a security threat and trigger fear of crime. Answering this question is difficult since refugee settlements are not randomly assigned. To address this empirical challenge, we use multiple rounds of Afrobarometer geo-referenced survey data from Uganda before and after the sudden and massive forced displacement generated by the 2013 civil war in South Sudan. We implement a difference-in-differences design to assess the effect of distance to refugee camps after the conflict in South Sudan on concerns about crime. The results show that -- after the massive influx of refugees -- individuals living close to refugee settlements become more likely to consider crime and security as one of their top concerns. This finding illustrates that anti-immigration attitudes are not just driven by pure economic and cultural anxieties but also by concerns about security. 

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“Regional Integration and the Question of Refugees: A Case Study of the East African Community." (with Lornah Afoyomungu and Jackline Kemigisa)

Abstract: This paper investigates challenges to refugee integration within the member states of the East African Community. Particularly, we focus on the legal bottlenecks to permanent settlement and integration of refugee communities into local social and  economic dynamics of the host countries. We argue that this failure to integrate is a direct consequence of lack of proper legal recognition of refugees as both leaders and participants in different sectors in the host countries. Drawing on the different legal frameworks that contribute to refugee governance, we explore the mismatch between state policies and the EAC charter pertaining to refugees, the challenges to implementation of these state policies. Our analysis of the different laws governing migration within the member states of the East African Community exposes the hypocrisy of the notion of free movement and the idea of economic, political, social and cultural integration that the creation of the community is based on​