Working Paper: NBER ID: w28448
Authors: Leonardo Bursztyn; Thomas Chaney; Tarek Alexander Hassan; Aakaash Rao
Abstract: We study how decades-long exposure to individuals of a given foreign descent shapes natives' attitudes and behavior toward that group. Using individualized donations data from large charitable organizations, we show that long-term exposure to a given foreign ancestry leads to more generous behavior specifically toward that group's ancestral country. To shed light on mechanisms, we focus on attitudes and behavior toward Arab-Muslims, combining several existing large-scale surveys, cross-county data on implicit prejudice, and a newly-collected national survey. We show that greater long-term exposure: (i) decreases both explicit and implicit prejudice against Arab-Muslims, (ii) reduces support for policies and political candidates hostile toward Arab-Muslims, (iii) leads to more personal contact with Arab-Muslim individuals, and (iv) increases knowledge of Arab-Muslims and Islam in general.
Keywords: immigrant integration; prejudice; generosity; charitable donations; Arab Muslims
JEL Codes: D83; D91; J15; P16; Z1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| long-term exposure to descendants of foreign migrants (F22) | increase in natives' generosity towards the ancestral group (D64) |
| long-term exposure to descendants of foreign migrants (F22) | reduce explicit and implicit prejudice against Arab Muslims (J15) |
| greater exposure to descendants of foreign migrants (F22) | increased personal contact with Arab Muslims (N95) |
| increased personal contact with Arab Muslims (N95) | enhanced knowledge about them (D80) |
| enhanced knowledge about Arab Muslims (P40) | reduce negative stereotypes associated with Islam (Z12) |