Date & Time: Los Angeles (9 am), Cincinnati (12 pm), Bath (5 pm), Munich (6 pm), Beijing (May 12, 12 am), Singapore (May 12, 12 am), Sydney (May 12, 2 am)

Nicholas Sambanis will present work on "Parochialism, Social Norms, and Discrimination Against Immigrants" from the forthcoming book called "Native Bias, Overcoming Discrimination Against Immigrants" (joint work with Donghyun Danny Choi and Mathias Poertner).

Abstract:
In the aftermath of the refugee crisis caused by conflicts in the Middle East and an increase in migration to Europe, European nations have witnessed a surge in hostility toward immigrant minorities. To quell these conflicts, some governments resort to the adoption of coercive assimilation policies aimed at erasing differences between natives and immigrants. Are these policies necessary? Native Bias challenges the premise of such regulations by making the case for a civic integration model, based on shared social ideas defining the concept and practice of citizenship. Drawing from original surveys, survey experiments, and novel field experiments, Donghyun Danny Choi, Mathias Poertner, and Nicholas Sambanis show that although prejudice against immigrants is often driven by differences in ascriptive (ethnic, religious) traits, the suppression of such differences does not constitute the only path to integration. Instead, the authors demonstrate that similarities in ideas and value systems can serve as the foundation for a common identity, based on a shared concept of citizenship, overcoming the perceived social distance between natives and immigrants.

Chair: Kai A. Konrad, Co-Chair: Subhasish Chowdhury