Interventions that Reduce Exclusionary Attitudes: Personal Narratives about Venezuelan Migrants in Colombia

Abstract

Colombia has received almost two million Venezuelan immigrants in the past few years. Despite sharing cultural similarities to the host population, this wave of migrants has not always been welcomed with open arms. A growing literature in Global North countries shows promise for perspective-getting exercises, in which participants learn about the lived experience of an out-group member, as ways to increase humanitarian concerns for immigrants and other minority groups. Using two large-scale pre-registered studies, we explore what kind of narratives are more effective in reducing prejudice and increasing support for migratory policies in Colombia. In the first study, we investigate whether learning about the economic hardship or the violent environment faced by a Venezuelan immigrant moving to Colombia affects policy preferences and prejudice outcomes. In the second study, we further explore the impact of a different version of the economic narrative and a narrative that highlights the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. We find that only the economic hardship narratives effectively change both the prejudice and the support for policies across studies. We interpret this finding as evidence that host populations in middle-income countries are more likely to welcome immigrants portrayed as hard-working and not as victims of violence or humanitarian crisis.

Background

In this project, we ask how to reduce exclusionary attitudes towards immigrants in developing countries. Recent work has shown that perspective-getting interventions, those in which individuals hear about the experiences of an outgroup member, have been successful at marshaling support for outgroups. However, we know little about their effectiveness in developing contexts, where migrants pose an economic threat to the native-born citizens. In this project, we implement a perspective-getting intervention that could potentially reduce exclusionary attitudes towards immigrants in Colombia, and we assess whether exposure to COVID-19 modifies the intervention effects.

Research Design

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) control; (2) reading a narrative of a Venezuelan immigrant discussing the hard economic conditions he has gone through; (3) reading a narrative of of a Venezuelan immigrant detailing the dangers he has gone through to migrate, and (4) reading an expanded version of the narrative in (3), in which participants learn that the Venezuelan immigrant was helped by a Colombian.

Hypotheses

Main Hypotheses:

• Assignment to the economic narrative will decrease support for deportation.
• Assignment to the violence narrative will reduce prejudice against migrants.
• Assignment to the violence narrative will reduce the stereotype beliefs index.

Heterogeneous treatment effects–two sided hypotheses:

• There exists heterogeneity in the magnitude of treatment effects on both policy attitudes, and prejudice and stereotypical beliefs on the basis of how worried respondents are about COVID-19.

Difference in effects across narratives with and without ‘in-group help’:

• Assignment to the violence narrative with in-group help will reduce prejudice against migrants more than assignment to the violence narrative without in-group help. •
• Assignment to the violence narrative with in-group help will reduce stereotypical beliefs about migrants more than assignment to the violence narrative without in-group help.

Mediation:

• Assignment to the economic narrative will increase empathy towards migrants
• Assignment to the violence narrative will increase empathy towards migrants
• The effect of the assignment to the economic narrative on support for deportation will be mediated by the increase in empathy
• The effect of the assignment to the violence narrative on support for deportation will be mediated by the increase in empathy

Exploratory hypotheses:

• Assignment to the economic narrative will increase support for pro-immigrant policy index.
• There exists heterogeneity in the magnitude of treatment effects on both policy attitudes, and prejudice and stereotypical beliefs on the basis of the baseline level of prejudice against migrants respondents have.
• Assignment to the economic narrative will increase anger felt towards the situation of migrants.
• Assignment to the violence narrative will increase anger felt towards the situation of migrants.
• The effect of the assignment to the economic narrative on support for deportation will be mediated by the increase in anger. H11.2 The effect of the assignment to the violence narrative on support for deportation will be mediated by the increase in anger.

Findings

Using two pre-registered studies, we explore what kind of narratives are more effective in reducing prejudice and increasing support for migratory policies in Colombia.

In the first study, implemented online between July 7 and July 24, 2021, we investigate whether learning about the economic hardship or the violent environment faced by a Venezuelan immigrant moving to Colombia affects policy preferences and prejudice outcomes. We find the following preliminary results:

• The perspective-getting treatment that shows economic conditions faced by immigrants reduces exclusionary attitudes towards immigrants.
• The treatment that emphasizes the violence immigrants face did not affect respondents’ attitudes overall.
• The economic treatment increases empathy toward migrants.

In the second study, implemented online between March 25 and April 18, 2022, we further explore the impact of a different version of the economic narrative and a narrative that highlights the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. We find the following results:

• The narrative that refers to the humanitarian crisis does not impact exclusionary attitudes.
• The economic narrative reduces exclusionary policy attitudes, but the effect is smaller than the one presented in study one. The most crucial difference in study one is that the narrative portrays an exceptional person (an athlete).
• Both the economic and humanitarian narratives are effective in reducing prejudice.
• Neither of the two narratives significantly impacts the stereotypical beliefs of Venezuelan immigrants.

Our results have direct and concrete implications for public policies. We found that a narrative that portrays an immigrant as hardworking is particularly useful in reducing support for exclusionary policies, especially when representing an exceptional immigrant.