The Effects of Religiosity and Socioeconomic Status on Social Distance towards Refugees and the Serial Mediating Role of Satisfaction with Life and Perceived Threat

Orhan Koçak

doi:10.3390/rel12090737

Abstract

In every society, refugees face social and economic exclusion. In particular, social distance towards refugees may be seen remarkably in cities where host people and refugees live together intensely. This study examined essential predictors of social distance towards refugees: religiosity, socioeconomic status (SES), satisfaction with life, and threat perception towards refugees. A quantitative research strategy was used to collect cross-sectional data from 1453 individuals via an online questionnaire in Turkey. Confirmatory factor, correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were conducted. In this study, the effect of religiosity and socioeconomic status on social distance towards refugees and the serial mediation effects of satisfaction with life and threat perception towards refugees on this relationship were analyzed. Questions related to age, gender, marital status, education level, and having refugee neighbors or not were used as control variables. It was found that religiosity and SES were associated with social distance towards refugees. Furthermore, in the effect of religiosity and SES on social distance towards refugees, the serial mediating roles of satisfaction with life and threat perception towards refugees, respectively, were identified.

Highlights

IntroductionThe number of Syrians is around 3.6 million in Turkey, 944,000 in Lebanon, 676,000 in Jordan, 532,000 in Germany, 253,000 in Iraq, 133,000 in Egypt, 109,000 in Sweden, 94,000 in Sudan, 49,000 in Austria, and 32,000 in the Netherlands
The global number of refugees and asylum seekers is growing
The results obtained as a result of the direct and serial mediation tests of the hypotheses shown in 2Figure which represent the conceptual modellevels of thebetween research, are factors shownare in in Figure below.1,The direct effect values and significance both direct values significance levels both factors are presented on theThe arrow lineeffect between theand factors

Summary

Introduction

The number of Syrians is around 3.6 million in Turkey, 944,000 in Lebanon, 676,000 in Jordan, 532,000 in Germany, 253,000 in Iraq, 133,000 in Egypt, 109,000 in Sweden, 94,000 in Sudan, 49,000 in Austria, and 32,000 in the Netherlands. As it has been observed, 83% of Syrians escaping the crisis are in Turkey and neighboring nations (Todd 2019). The peoples of the host countries regard refugees as a threat to their security and a burden on their economies (Koc and Anderson 2018). The religiosity and socioeconomic status of the host country’s people affect attitudes and social distance towards refugees. Education level, gender, age, and whether participants have refugee neighbors were used as control variables

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion