The Social Capital Effects of Refugee Resettlement on Host Communities*

Abstract

We examine the effects of refugee resettlement on the trust and attitudes of individuals in host populations. We exploit an exogenous resettlement shock in rural Australia and combine data from a lab-in-the-field experiment with repeated cross-sectional survey data to test the predictions of three prominent theories about inter-group contact: contact theory, conflict theory and constrict theory. Surprisingly, our aggregate results reject all of the theories. A split-sample analysis reveals strong gender effects: females who have experienced contact with resettled refugees are more trusting of refugees generally and also hold significantly more favourable attitudes towards refugee resettlement than males.