Influencing the Migration-Decision through Information Campaigns: Evidence from a Field Experiment

The recent increase in irregular immigration, pressures European governments to act. Remote migration control via information campaigns became a popular approach in this context. Campaigns are implemented in places with high rates of irregular emigration but no legal claim for asylum in Europe. However, until now no rigorous evaluation of such campaigns exists. I contribute by investigating two facets of interest: First, I study whether the transmitted campaign information increases knowledge and decreases irregular migration behavior. Second, I examine which factors moderate this relation. I expect effects to be stronger when using an anxiety triggering type of emotional message. I test these hypotheses with a pre- and post-treatment panel study with around 200 university students and 1500 senior secondary school students in Nigeria. Due to the sensitivity of the dependent variable, migration behavior, migration intention and the following hypothetical behavior are studied. The level of topic specific knowledge is examined as a second order dependent variable. The study reveals that information campaigns are successful in increasing knowledge about the topic of (irregular) migration. While migration intentions are not influenced by campaigns, campaigns have a substantial impact on hypothetical migration decision-making behavior. Examining the mechanism in-depth through message type division, supports the expected stronger effect for an anxiety triggering message on the level of knowledge, but not for migration behavior.