From Hospitality to Hostility: Impact of the Rohingya Refugee Influx on the Sentiments of Host Communities

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effect of the 2017 Rohingya refugee influx on the sentiments of the host communities in Bangladesh, specifically focusing on their hostility toward the refugees. By use of an incentivized joy-of-destruction game involving 1,679 individuals, it was found that 57% of hosts willingly bore personal costs to reduce the amount of donations provided to support the Rohingya, indicating revealed hostility toward the refugee population. The regression analysis indicates that hosts more directly exposed to the refugee camp exhibited a significantly greater reduction in their donations than those less exposed. This reduction was likely due to the damage caused by the influx on the host communities. However, both the exposed and less exposed hosts stated similar negative opinions toward the refugees, suggesting that the experiment effectively elicited genuine hostility toward the refugee outgroup rather than cosmetic expressions of hostility.