Ethnic Minorities and Migrants
Paper Session
Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PST)
- Chair: Shuai Chen, University of Leicester
Building Social Capital Among Forcibly Displaced Children
Abstract
Forced displacement disrupts the development of social capital among millions of children worldwide. These children face substantial barriers to forming social networks and engaging in cooperative behaviors due to frequent relocations, cutting social ties, and unstable environments. These challenges are especially severe in low- or middle-income countries, where resources and infrastructure are insufficient to meet the needs of displaced children. In partnership with BRAC, we implemented a cluster-randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a structured play-based intervention on the social capital development of Rohingya refugee children aged 3-5 in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Using lab-in-the-field experiments and rich survey data, we find that the intervention was effective in developing the social capital of refugee children – measured through friendship formation – while also improving their cognitive and motor skills. Social interactions within play centers or developing social skills do not explain these results, instead formation of trust and altruism toward peers and reduction in externalizing behavioral problems explain our findings. Our findings offer important insights into how early interventions can mitigate the negative effects of displacement and present scalable policy solutions to strengthen social capital during childhood in resource-constrained settings.How Asylum Seekers in the United States Respond to Their Judges: Evidence and Implications
Abstract
Judges in United States immigration courts exhibit extreme variability in their decisions, with on average a 20 percentage point gap in grant rates between the least versus most lenient judge in a court from 2009-2015. We show that this variability has an important unintended consequence: Asylum seekers quasi-randomly assigned to less lenient immigration judges are more likely to be absent for their immigration hearings. A simulation demonstrates that this type of endogenous response to decision-maker leniency causes bias in second-stage estimates when using the popular randomly assigned decision-maker research design.Do Beliefs in the Model Minority Stereotype Reduce Attention to Inequality Experienced by Asian Americans?
Abstract
We study how prevalent the model minority stereotype about Asian Americans (e.g., hard-working, intelligent) is, and whether such a stereotype reduces people’s attention to inequality experienced by Asians. With a representative US sample (N=3,257), we find that around 90% of the participants either strongly or moderately believe that Asians work harder and are more economically successful compared to other ethnic minorities. We then document that the model minority belief is positively associated with people’s tendency to overestimate incomes for Asians but not for Whites or Blacks. Moreover, in a basic cognitive experiment, people, regardless of their stereotype about Asians, are more likely to see an equal distribution of resources between Asians and people of other races when Asians have less than others by design. Finally, in an experiment of unfair hiring practices, people who hold a strong model minority stereotype are less likely to detect discrimination against Asians than discrimination against Whites. Our results offer new insights into the possible mechanisms behind why many Americans are relatively more apathetic toward Asians’ unfair treatment and adverse experiences compared to those of other races.JEL Classifications
- D6 - Welfare Economics
- J1 - Demographic Economics