Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Program
Political Science
Advisor
Alyson Cole
Advisor
Till Weber
Abstract
The Syrian Civil War led to a massive influx of refugees into the neighboring country of Jordan. In this paper, I investigate the effect of Syrian refugee arrivals on institutional trust, national pride, and support for authoritarian or democratic regimes among the Jordanian population. Methodologically, I use advanced quantitative techniques (in particular, ”difference-in-differences” and ”instrumental variables”) to identify causal relationships in various survey and census data. The findings suggest that an increase in refugee percentage in Jordanian governorates led to a reduction in political trust and positive attitudes towards having a strong leader (authority). However, an increase in refugee percentage led to a rise in Jordanians’ national pride and positive response towards having democracy as a political system. This study, thus, contributes to the literature the opposite impact of refugees on specific and diffuse political support. This study also adds a new discussion to the literature by uncovering that even though nationalistic tendencies increased in Jordanians, they did not cause extreme and anti-democratic ideologies in the natives’ behavior as seen in many studies of Western countries.
Recommended Citation
Agkoc, Suna Buse, "The Effects of Syrian Refugees on Jordanians’ Political Attitudes" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4741
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