Geographical proximity to refugee reception centres and voting

What is it about?

The placement of refugee reception centres in a given administrative area can create backlashes in the resident population. This, in turn, may be reflected in voting against parties that have more friendly policies towards immigrants and refugees.

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Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash

Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We demonstrate for the case of Italy that voters were affected by proximity to refugee reception centres, even if the latter were located in different municipalities from where they resided. Indeed, voting for populist parties was higher for individuals living closer to refugee reception centres. This is an important result as previous papers generally overlooked these spillover effects, potentially underestimating the backlash effects.