Past Violence and Refugee Reception: The Case of Syrians in Lebanon

• In Event: Historical and Contemporary Challenges to Host-Refugee Integration

Abstract

What role does past conflict pay in shaping attitudes towards refugees today? Violent conflict and displacement are intimately linked phenomena, and refugees fleeing violence in their home countries often end up seeking shelter in societies that have also experienced violence. Despite a rich literature on the determinants of host population attitudes towards refugees, we know little about how past experiences of violence amongst receiving populations shape attitudes towards refugees when the sending population was associated with that violence. To explore this question, we use spatial and data from Lebanon, where communities experienced varying levels of violence from the Syrian army, and decades later, began hosting Syrian refugees. The Syrian army played an active role in the Lebanese civil war, often targeting civilians in attacks on Lebanese communities. Are communities that experienced violence at the hands of the Syrian Army during the Lebanese civil war more biased towards Syrian refugees today? Deploying spatial data of instances of violence from the Syrian army and attitudes towards Syrian refugees today, we will establish whether past experiences with violence associated with refugee populations impact host population sentiments today.

Author

• Molly Hickey, Harvard University