Backlash against Repression: Evidence from Refugees Fleeing the Soviet Bloc

• In Event: Learning from Global Democratic Challenges and Innovations Mini-Conference III: Migration as Part of the Authoritarian Toolkit

Abstract

Using administrative data on Jewish refugees fleeing the Former Soviet Bloc for the United States between 1955 and 2000, along with survey data on Israeli citizens born in the Former Soviet Bloc, we demonstrate persistent downstream political consequences of living as a targeted minority under a repressive, communist regime. Using a within-family research design, we show that individuals who spent longer periods living under a Soviet Bloc government are more likely to engage in backlash against the regime that oppressed them by (1) being more likely to vote in their new democratic countries and (2) affiliating with right-wing political parties most unlike ruling regimes in their origin countries.

Authors

• Valentin Bolotnyy, Hoover Institution

• Mayya Komisarchik, University of Rochester

• Brian Daniel Libgober, Northwestern University