Violence, Displacement, and Support for Internally Displaced Persons: Evidence from Syria

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220027211011523
• Subject Matter: Articles

2021, Vol. 65(10) 1791 –1819

Article

Violence, Displacement,

and Support for Internally

Displaced Persons:

Evidence from Syria

Alexandra C. Hartman

1

, Benjamin S. Morse

2,3

,

and Sigrid Weber

1

Abstract

What is the legacy of war, violence, and displacement on altruism toward diverse

populations suffering similar hardships today? Prior research suggests these hard-

ships have the potential to increase empathy that can in turn motivate altruism

across identity boundaries. We test this hypothesis using survey data collected in

2017 from over 2,000 Syrians living in rebel-held regions where many internally

displaced persons (IDPs) sought refuge. We find that Syrians previously exposed to

violence were more likely to host IDPs. Using a conjoint experiment to measure

hosting preferences over different types of IDPs, we show that these individuals also

preferred to host sick and vulnerable IDPs and outgroup IDPs from the Kurdish

ethnic minority. However, they were less likely to host IDPs from the Christian

minority, possibly due to their association with the government. These results

suggest that empathy and politics both play an important role in shaping the rela-

tionship between violence, altruism, and intergroup behavior during conflict.

Keywords

humanitarian intervention, foreign aid, civil wars, conflict management

1

Department of Political Science, University College London, United Kingdom

2

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

3

J-PAL, Cambridge, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Benjamin S. Morse, Social Impact, 2300 Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201, USA.

Email: bmorse@socialimpact.com

Journal of Conflict Resolution

ªThe Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00220027211011523

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1792 Journal of Conflict Resolution 65(10)

Introduction

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there

are currently more refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) than at any time

since the end of World War II. As the number of those displaced by violence grows,

humanitarian agencies and host-country governments have increasingly call on

ordinary citizens to welcome displaced people into their communities through reset-

tlement and local integration programs (UNHCR 2013). However, little is known

about what motivates hosts to incur the costs and risks of hosting refugees and IDPs.

This is especially true of host populations in poor and conflict-affected countries.

Because it is often difficult to collect data in these settings, most research on why

citizens of host-countries support migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees comes

from wealthy countries in stable regions (e.g. Hainmueller and Hopkins 2014;

Adida, Lo, and Platas 2018). While a small number of studies have addressed this

topic using data from developing countries (Hartman and Morse 2020; Whitaker

2003), rigorous empirical evidence on the drivers of support for refugees and IDPs in

countries experiencing civil conflict remains scarce. Yet this is precisely where the

need for research on the drivers of support for IDPs and refugees is greatest, as the

overwhelming majority of those forcibly displaced by violence flee within their own

country or region, where levels of civil conflict, strife, and poverty are high

(UNHCR 2016).

To address this gap, we collaborated with an international humanitarian aid

organization conducting surveys in non-government controll ed areas of Syria to

inform their programming and aid policies.

1

Our collaboration centered around one

such survey administered in 2017 to over 2,000 Syrians from seventy communities

in northern and southern Syria. In addition to information on economic activity,

medical needs, and food security, the survey collected information on past experi-

ences with violence, whether respondents were currently hosting IDPs from other

parts of Syria, and whether they would be willing to host additional IDPs should the

need arise. The latter topic—willingness to offer assistance to IDPs—was elicited

through a conjoint experiment in which respondents were presented vignettes of

hypothetical IDP families whose attributes varied along several dimensions (e.g.

ethnic and religious identity, gender of household head, level of need, and occupa-

tion) and asked to choose which family they would rather host, given their limited

resources.

We use these data to assess how past exposure to violence associates with hosting

behavior. We focus on the association of past violence with whether and for how

long an individual decides to host IDPs, as well as past violence’s association with

how much weight an individual assigns to indicators of need relative to ethnic and

religious identity when deciding who to host. Our pre-registered hypotheses draw on

theories of altruism born of suffering, which posit that victimization and suffering

can lead to greater empathy, and that such empathy can in turn motivate altruistic

behavior toward those in need regardless of their ethnic or religious identity. Recent

2Journal of Conflict Resolution XX(X)