Neighborhood Segregation Preferences Among Migrants and Host Community Members in Turkey

Preliminary abstract:

This project explores immigrant inclusion at the neighborhood level through a conjoint experiment that examines simultaneous migrant and host community preferences for residential segregation. It considers this topic in the context of Turkey, a country that has experienced massive in-migration of refugees from the Syrian civil war. The experiment is implemented through a 5000 person door-to-door survey in Adana, Turkey that draws equally from migrant (Syrian) and host (Turk) populations. The primary focus of the conjoint is on neighborhood demographic composition and whether the effect of out-group size on willingness to live in the neighborhood is symmetric or asymmetric across migrant and host populations. We find that decisions to move to a neighborhood among host members are significantly affected by percentage of outgroup neighbors whereas they are not for migrants. Furthermore, type of outgroup matters such that the negative outgroup effect among Turks is stronger for Syrians-as the newer and lowest status outgroup-than it is for Kurds. Finally, our findings suggest that outgroup aversion among the host population remains regardless of the level of crime in the neighborhood, and that crime only becomes a significant factor shaping preferences in ingroup dominant neighborhoods. For Syrians, demographic context is not of major concern, but crime is.