Who Deserves Aid? Perceptions of Fairness in Contexts of Forced Displacement

Abstract

How do host communities evaluate the fairness of how economic assistance is distributed between themselves and refugees in low- and middle- income countries? I argue that in these contexts, where host communities are often economically vulnerable, they perceive themselves as more deserving of aid than refugees, despite the fact that refugees are often unable to formally work or move about freely. I draw upon original descriptive and experimental survey data in Kenya to illuminate how members of the host community perceive the fairness of the distribution of economic assistance between themselves and refugees as well as how they assess deservingness of aid along a number of dimensions. The descriptive evidence reveals that what hosts consider a fair distribution of aid between themselves and refugees is vastly different from how they perceive the current distribution. A conjoint experiment provides causal evidence that hosts perceive themselves as more deserving of aid than refugees, but that group membership matters less than marital status, age, and ability when determining deservingness. Counter to expectations, assessments of deservingness of refugees and hosts do not vary based on the level of interaction with refugees or income level.