2021
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

Fairness or Control: What Determines Elected Local Leaders’ Support for Hosting Refugees in Their Community?

By: Kristin Fabbe, Eleni Kyrkopoulou, Konstantinos Matakos and Asli Unan

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:32

Abstract

When it comes to successful refugee reception the local level matters. Research overwhelmingly examines host communities' attitudes, but endorsement from local politicians is equally important to resolve conflicts and facilitate harmonious interaction. Yet, the preferences of local leaders and their willingness to support the resettlement process are understudied. We conduct the first-ever conjoint experiment on a representative sample of local elected leaders in Greece, a heavily-impacted country with many active host sites. We elicit elite preferences regarding refugee resettlement and find that local leaders are more likely to support it if they are involved in the process and can control the frequency and intensity of local-refugee interactions. Heterogeneous effects reveal that polarizing tensions around refugee resettlement derive from elites' divergent conceptions of control as opposed to different perceptions of fairness. Over-all, our results suggest that processes to mitigate early impact and exposure, combined with fair-share allocations, can dampen polarized reactions to future resettlement.