Can a Sense of Shared War Experience Increase Refugee Acceptance?

Abstract

How can one increase openness towards conflict refugees in states that have experienced conflict? While highlighting shared war experience may reduce hostility toward refugees by enabling people to better understand the plight of refugees, it may also foment higher levels of out-group antipathy due to heightened feelings of threat. To answer this question, we leverage the context of South Korea, a country that technically remains at war with North Korea for more than 70 years and yet attracts asylum seekers as an advanced economy. This provides a hard case to shift residents' refugee acceptance, as challenges associated with accepting refugees are amplified with ongoing threat concerns. Employing an original survey, we find that when the parallels between the human costs of the Korean War and current conflicts are underscored, refugee acceptance increases, particularly among those whose families were displaced by the war. Moreover, this strategy is more effective than perspective-taking exercises.