Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/318440 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IRENE Working Paper No. 25-03
Publisher: 
University of Neuchâtel, Institute of Economic Research (IRENE), Neuchâtel
Abstract: 
This paper examines the short- to long-term effects of large-scale refugee inflows on labour markets and anti-asylum attitudes. Using the exogenous arrival of Yugoslav refugees to Switzerland in the 1990s and municipal-level data with an instrumental variables strategy, we find that refugee exposure increased unemployment and anti-asylum voting in the short term. Over a decade later, the refugee shock is no longer correlated with unemployment, whereas anti-asylum attitudes not only decline but reverse in areas with higher initial exposure, notably in rural municipalities. These results highlight the temporary nature of labour market disruptions and the longer-term shift in anti-asylum attitudes consistent with contact theory.
Subjects: 
Refugees
Forced Migration
Unemployment
Labour Market Effects
AntiAsylum Attitudes
Voting Behaviour
Contact Theory
JEL: 
J61
J68
D72
F22
J15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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