Majority residents’ perceptions of ‘economic’ and ‘political’ refugees: Psychological processes underlying the flight‐reason bias

Abstract

AbstractMigrants who flee their home country for economic (vs. political) reasons often elicit more negative responses in receiving countries. We examined psychological processes underlying this flight‐reason bias, focusing on majority residents’ perceptions of migration circumstances and their emotional responses. In three preregistered studies (total N = 1394), participants read texts about an individual refugee (Studies 1 and 2) or groups of refugees (Study 3) who fled because of economic versus political reasons. Overall, participants perceived migration as less forced in the economic‐flight reason condition. Economic (vs. political) flight reasons also elicited less willingness to accept refugees. Additional analyses suggest that the flight‐reason bias was driven by greater perceived control of refugees over emigration (for perceived forcedness), by lower empathy (for willingness to accept refugees) and by lower perceived pre‐migration perils (for both outcomes) in the economic‐flight reason conditions. We discuss implications for political and humanitarian issues surrounding refugee immigration and integration.