TY - JOUR

T1 - The effect of migration on terror

T2 - Made at home or imported from abroad?

AU - Dreher, Axel

AU - Gassebner, Martin

AU - Schaudt, Paul

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Richard Bluhm, Stephan Klasen, Anna Maria Mayda, Christopher Parsons, Patrick Puhani, Todd Sandler and participants of the Terrorism and Policy Conference (Dallas 2010), the CESifo Workshop in Political Economy (Dresden 2016), the Globalization and Development Workshop (GLAD, Hannover 2016), the Annual Meeting of the European Public Choice Society (Budapest 2017), the Annual International Conference of the Research Group on Development Economics (Goettingen 2017), the Annual Congress of the European Economic Association (Lisbon 2017), the Conference of the International Political Economy Society (Austin 2017), and the OECD Workshop on Immigration (Paris 2017) for helpful comments. Finally, we would like to thank co-editor Hillel Rapoport and two anonymous referees for excellent feedback.

PY - 2020/12/7

Y1 - 2020/12/7

N2 - We analyze how a country's immigrant population—defined as the stock of people born abroad—affects the probability of a terrorist attack in the host country. Using data for 20 OECD host countries and 183 countries of origin over the 1980–2010 period our OLS and 2SLS regressions show that the probability that immigrants from a specific country of origin conduct a terrorist attack in their host country increases with a larger number of foreigners from such countries living there. However, this scale effect does not differ from the effect domestic populations have on domestic terror. We find scarce evidence that terror is systematically imported from countries with large Muslim populations or countries where terror networks prevail. Policies that exclude foreigners already living in a country increase rather than reduce the risk that foreign populations turn violent, and so do terrorist attacks against foreigners in their host country. Highly skilled migrants are associated with a significantly lower risk of terror compared with low skilled ones, while there is no significant difference between foreign-born men and women.

AB - We analyze how a country's immigrant population—defined as the stock of people born abroad—affects the probability of a terrorist attack in the host country. Using data for 20 OECD host countries and 183 countries of origin over the 1980–2010 period our OLS and 2SLS regressions show that the probability that immigrants from a specific country of origin conduct a terrorist attack in their host country increases with a larger number of foreigners from such countries living there. However, this scale effect does not differ from the effect domestic populations have on domestic terror. We find scarce evidence that terror is systematically imported from countries with large Muslim populations or countries where terror networks prevail. Policies that exclude foreigners already living in a country increase rather than reduce the risk that foreign populations turn violent, and so do terrorist attacks against foreigners in their host country. Highly skilled migrants are associated with a significantly lower risk of terror compared with low skilled ones, while there is no significant difference between foreign-born men and women.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092524102&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/caje.12469

DO - 10.1111/caje.12469

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85092524102

VL - 53

SP - 1703

EP - 1744

JO - Canadian Journal of Economics

JF - Canadian Journal of Economics

SN - 0008-4085

IS - 4

ER -