Maybe in My Backyard: Dynamics of Refugee-Host Cooperation

• In Event: Experiments in African Politics

Abstract

How does cooperation foster peace and prosperity among hosts and refugees? I examine whether strong economic community institutions contribute to peacebuilding as they provide a space for social capital and cooperation to develop between refugees and host communities. To test this, I examine the results from a 1006-person survey with an embedded vignette experiment. I explore these dynamics in the context of cooperation between host communities and refugees in farmer groups in Uganda, as cooperation most commonly emerges through agricultural livelihoods in rural areas in developing countries - where an overwhelming proportion of the world’s refugees are settled. With the survey, I test whether compared to members in homogeneous farmer groups that consist of solely refugees or hosts, refugees and hosts in mixed groups have more positive attitudes towards each other due to prolonged and consistent interactions, as well as improvements in their livelihoods through cooperation. I find that while being in a mixed group improves Ugandan nationals' acceptance of refugees as individuals, it has no significant effect on their support for pro-refugee policies. In addition, being in a mixed farmer group might actually have a negative effect on both refugees' and hosts' willingness to cooperate and solve conflict with the out-group. My work contributes to the existing literature on refugee-host relations and civil society’s role in peacebuilding by exploring whether community institutions can foster pro-social attitudes and behavior crucial for economic development.

Author

• Rebecca Wai, University of Michigan