Left Out: How Political Ideology Affects Support for Migrants in Colombia

Abstract

Do perceived political views of migrants affect their treatment? This question has been neglected in studies of migrant reception. The overlap between ethnicity and partisanship makes it hard to disentangle political fears from other status and identity concerns. We leverage a case in which migrants come from a similar ethno-linguistic background to explore the role of political fears. Drawing on an original face-to-face survey with over 1,000 Colombians and 1,600 Venezuelans in Colombia, we find that Colombians view Venezuelan migrants as left-wing even though actual Venezuelan migrants are more right-wing than their Colombian hosts. These political misperceptions are consequential: Colombians who view migrants as left-wing are less likely to support welcoming border policies. In a conjoint experiment, Colombians strongly oppose the settlement of left-wing migrants in their communities. One implication is that societies can construct out-groups along political lines when the ethnic and cultural bases for migrant exclusion are weaker.