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Publication Detailed Description
Migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees: Different labels for immigrants influence attitudes through perceived benefits in nine countries
Journal Title
European Journal of Social Psychology
Year (definitive publication)
2023
Language
English
Country
United States of America
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Abstract
The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement of people on record. Public discourse often uses labels to describe people on the move such as ‘migrants’, ‘asylum seekers’, or ‘refugees’ interchangeably. A preregistered study in nine countries (Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; N = 2844) tested experimentally the effect of these three labels on attitudes towards immigrants and immigration policies. We found a significant difference between the label ‘migrant’ and both ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘refugee’ on the social distance scale. Participants were happier if migrants, rather than asylum seekers and refugees, were their neighbours, friends, or partners. The effect was mediated by perceived benefits, but not threats, whereby migrants were perceived to bring more benefits to receiving societies than asylum seekers and refugees. To increase the acceptance of immigrants, speakers may consider specifying the given group and emphasize benefits that immigrants bring to receiving societies.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Attitudes,Labels,Language,Migration,Threats and benefits
Fields of Science and Technology Classification
- Psychology - Social Sciences
Funding Records
| Funding Reference | Funding Entity |
|---|---|
| 703495 | Marie Curie Actions Horizon 2020 |
| 703495 | Marie Curie Actions |
| 68081740 | Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences |
| 323125 | Research Council of Finland |
| 23-06170S | Grant Agency of the Czech Republic |
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