“Stand by Those who Share our Values” – How Refugees Fleeing the Taliban Improved European Attitudes Toward Immigration

Abstract

Several existing studies have found that negative political framing of immigrants increases anti-immigrant public attitudes. I conduct two studies that reveal conditions under which the opposite dynamic unfolds. I argue that when refugees are framed as vulnerable, assimilable, and deserving of help, this should cause a reduction in anti-immigrant sentiment. In the first study, analyzing the case of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, I demonstrate such deservingness frames with computational and qualitative text analyses of news archival data and social media posts by political elites. In the second study, I show with an unexpected event during survey design that the positive framing of refugees during this highly salient event led to a significant immediate and long-term increase in pro-immigration attitudes across Europe. Together, these findings suggest that it is possible for politicians and journalists to effectively reduce xenophobia during large-scale refugee arrivals by highlighting refugees’ vulnerability and assimilability.