Contact, Competition, and Culture: Understanding Attitudes Towards Immigrants in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The contact hypothesis from Allport (1954) predicts that under the correct conditions, contact with immigrants should increase positive attitudes towards them. I combine a large harmonized dataset from Afrobarometer with a large dataset from IPUMS to understand how contact influences attitudes towards immigrants in sub-Saharan Africa. I find correlations between exposure to immigrants (in both levels and changes) and positive attitudes, though using a shift-share instrument, I do not find a causal effect of exposure to immigrants on attitudes. The well-educated are more positive towards immigrants in spite of elevated occupational competition, which is associated with negative attitudes. Finally, when immigrants are more ethnically similar, attitudes are more positive, though this effect is smaller than the influence of occupational contact, reversing the ordering in the established literature. My results, which are consistent with work done in the rest of the world, demonstrate that contact operates as a powerful positive force and align with a view from the literature that drivers of immigration attitudes in sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world have more in common than differences.