The impact of Covid-19 on Public Attitudes to Immigrants

Abstract

This panel reunites innovative empirical contributions that study how the Covid-19 pandemic affected attitudes to immigrants and related discrimination. Theoretically, we can identify different arguments of why we would expect an increase in xenophobia and discrimination due to the pandemic. From a social-psychological perspective, the pandemic a priori heightens distinctions between in-groups and out-groups, which leads to more negative attitudes. The crisis may create a fertile ground for xenophobia and nationalist tendencies due to increased feelings of fear, threat, uncertainty, and anxiety, which may result in discriminating behaviour. Accounts from evolutionary psychology also highlight disgust sensitivity as a potential trigger for anti-immigrant attitudes: pointing to increased sensitivity to disgust and avoidance of threatening marginal groups in times of a pandemic. On a political level, national reactions to the pandemic – and national mobility restrictions in particular – may have increased the importance of one’s national identity and thus trigger nationalism, another important driver of xenophobia. Moreover, scapegoating of immigrants and health-related negative stereotypes may surface during the health crisis. The papers in this panel put these theories to a critical test, by providing empirical evidence on how the Covid-19 pandemic affected various manifestations of attitudes towards immigrants and discrimination. We expect temporal and geographic variation to yield insightful comparisons, while experimental studies can reveal likely mechanisms on how the pandemic affected attitudes and discrimination.

Title	Details
Conditional Solidarity - Attitudes towards support for others during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic	View Paper Details
Does every life count the same? Evidence from a Triage Experiment	View Paper Details
No Evidence of Increased Discrimination During the Covid-19 Pandemic	View Paper Details
British Attitudes and Welfare Policy Preferences Towards Migrant Labour During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Change or Continuity?	View Paper Details
Discrimination against Mobile EU Citizens: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in Germany before and during the COVID-19 lockdown	View Paper Details