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. 2022 Oct;61(4):1124-1143.
doi: 10.1111/bjso.12529. Epub 2022 Mar 4.

Pandemic vulnerability, policy feedback and support for immigration: Evidence from Asia

Siu-Yau Lee  1 , Samson Yuen  2 , Nick H K Or  3 , Edmund W Cheng  3 , Ricci P H Yue  3
Affiliations

Pandemic vulnerability, policy feedback and support for immigration: Evidence from Asia

Siu-Yau Lee et al. Br J Soc Psychol. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Past studies have shown that disease threat increases people's hostility towards immigrants. However, in our survey (N = 9571) conducted in five advanced Asian economies during the outbreak of COVID-19, we found that COVID-19 vulnerability was positively associated with support for immigration. Drawing on insight from policy feedback theories, we propose that the positive association is caused by the presence of widespread border crossing restrictions, which have changed the meaning and cost implications of COVID-19. As the outbreak expands, the pandemic has become not just a threat to people's health but also a barrier to globalization. Consequently, people who are worried about the disease may see globalization processes, including migration, as signs of pandemic relief. We find supportive evidence in our analysis. First, the positive association between COVID-19 vulnerability and support for immigration is more salient among respondents who considered restrictions on international travel to be stringent. Second, the positive association between COVID-19 vulnerability and immigration attitude was mediated by perceived economic threat from the pandemic and contribution by immigrants towards the containment of the pandemic. These findings suggest that disease control measures adopted at the global level may alter certain widely accepted effects of disease threat on immigration attitudes.

Keywords: COVID-19; attitudes; disease threat; globalization; immigration; policy feedback.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Travel restrictions in the selected economies. Source: Oxford COVID‐ Government Response Tracker,
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Attitudes towards immigrants in the selected economies prior to the COVID‐19 outbreak. Source: Chang & Welsh,
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Interaction between COVID‐19 vulnerability (Anxiety) and perceived border stringency on immigration support. Panel A. Estimated coefficient of Anxiety on immigration support (with 95% CI). Panel B. Predicted support for immigration as a function of Anxiety and perceived border stringency. Notes: visualization based on the results of Model 4; the solid and dotted lines in Panel B are 1 SD above and below the mean respectively. The corresponding interaction plots for Worry, which report similar visual evidence, are available in the Appendix S1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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