Neighborhood quality and opposition to immigration: Evidence from German refugee shelters

Abstract

Does refugee immigration affect the quality of neighborhood amenities, and are these changes driving the opposition to immigration? In this paper, I use real estate listings and online reviews of local amenities to demonstrate neighborhood change due to the establishment of a refugee shelter. The setting is Berlin during the refugee immigration episode of 2015. I show that shelter locations did not differ from control locations in terms of neighborhood quality or political outcomes before 2015. After a shelter is established, rental prices decline 3–4% within 100m of the shelter, relative to untreated locations. Ratings for existing amenities also decline in the immediate vicinity. However, anti-immigrant right-wing parties do not receive a higher share of the vote in these areas, which demonstrates that neighborhood decline due to immigration does not drive the large aggregate surge in their support.