PhD position – The Impact of Migrant-Group-Specific Policies on Social Cohesion

• Supervisors:

Liesbet Heyse (University of Groningen)

John Tang (Utrecht University)

• Aim of the project

Governments sometimes adopt national policies to support specific groups, such as migrants. These include providing tax benefits to high-skilled labourers, giving refugees priority in housing or ensuring basic needs of irregular migrants. Tailoring support to such groups can be important for these groups to thrive. Moreover, local accommodation and adaptation of these policies to these groups may be more effective than a single one-size-fits-all approach. At the same time, group-specific policies might also result in negative responses from other groups, who might perceive such measures as preferential treatment at their expense, thereby threatening social cohesion at large. In this project, we aim to disentangle which local circumstances and practices facilitate the integration of various migrant groups targeted in national or sub-national policies while simultaneously upholding social cohesion in and between all societal groups. We plan to use detailed longitudinal observational data at the municipality level to identify areas subject to more or less intervention to support migrants and compare outcomes between municipalities.

• Project description

Research Questions

The project focuses on studying the local effects of national (RQ1) or sub-national (RQ2) policies targeting migrant groups on social cohesion and explaining variations in these outcomes. For the first question, under what circumstances do national policies contribute to or hamper social cohesion at the local level? For the second question, in cases where local governments have discretion in translating these policies into local practices and measures, how do local variations in policy implementation promote social cohesion within and between groups in society and in society at large?

State of the Art & Advancement of Current Understanding

This project will complement literature on policy measures targeting migrant groups via its systematic analysis of variations in local policy practices in relation to various dimensions of social cohesion.

There is a plethora of studies analysing the effects of ‘reception contexts’ and more specifically policy measures on migrant group integration. In the latter category, there are studies and datasets on (variations in) national migration policies (e.g., Damen et al., 2023). In recent years, some data and studies on regional and local policy variation have become available. These studies provide relevant insights into how such policies impact the integration of migrants but do not relate this to degrees of between-group or societal cohesion (e.g., migrants and existing residents). These policies may potentially be negatively perceived by others and thus threaten overall cohesion. This project aims to provide a more systematic and comprehensive analysis of the local effects of national policies on social cohesion outcomes and of the way local governments translate national policies into local practices and how these affect social cohesion.

Scope of the Project

We will focus on migrants, initially high-skilled workers but also other economic or political migrants, and start with a within-country analysis of the Netherlands over the past few decades.

Sub-question 1 will be studied by analysing the effect of the so-called ‘30 per cent rule’ or expat rule for international knowledge workers on social cohesion in municipalities. This is a five-year, 30 per cent tax exemption for international knowledge workers. This policy has been changed multiple times in terms of duration, income levels and tax exemption percentage. This enables a longitudinal analysis of the effect of different versions of the policy on social cohesion at the local level. The expat rule has been argued to increase demand for housing in particular areas in the Netherlands and consequently to contribute to rising housing prices. This may result in the crowding out of Dutch citizens from these neighbourhoods, leading to gentrification and displacement, which may worsen social cohesion. We expect that this crowding-out effect will affect voting behaviour in local elections (e.g., support for anti-migration parties) and trust in government (e.g., survey responses regarding social cohesion). We will analyse whether and where these patterns can be found and how local variations in these patterns can be explained.

With regard to sub-question 2, we aim to explore how we can quantitatively or qualitatively study local variations in policies targeting refugees or asylum seekers. To illustrate, in the Dutch context, the general norm is that refugees who have been granted asylum are prioritized for social housing over other groups in need of social housing. Most local governments therefore prioritize refugees, but some have decided not to do this any longer. Moreover, the national government has now proposed prohibiting the prioritization of refugees. Other local governments are looking for options to simultaneously let refugees share housing with other groups in need of housing. How do these different practices impact social cohesion within and between refugees and other groups and societal cohesion at large?

Project Deliverables

• Data: Ideally, the project will deliver 1) a dataset of different types of policies aimed at migrants as well as a categorization of local variations in some of these policies and 2) insights into the relation between these local practices and the well-being of migrant groups, social cohesion between groups and in society at large.
• Theory: This project will advance theoretical thinking on how local variations in target-group-specific national policies may not only improve the integration of these groups but also prevent the unravelling of social cohesion of other groups and in society at large.
• Insights for policy and society: This project has the potential to deliver insights and possible recommendations for policymakers as to what characteristics of policies foster both the integration of minority groups as well as prevent the unravelling of social cohesion in and between other groups.

Project’s Focus on Cross-Levels Analysis of the Empirical Components of a Project

This project will address the relation between national and local governments and their gestalt impact on social cohesion in and between minority and majority groups, thus addressing the macro- and mesolevel of social cohesion. We will study how these practices affect a) specific groups, in terms of integration and belonging; b) intergroup social cohesion between these and other groups; and c) societal cohesion at large (e.g., trust in government and the state, feeling part of society). The main aim of the project is to explore the conditions under which local policy practices may increase or uphold cohesion on all levels, a) to c), as mentioned above.

• Research design

We are interested in establishing a set of stylized facts that describe current and historical patterns of social cohesion in relation to national and subnational policies that affect the integration of migrants and refugees as well as the response of the majority group. The unit of analysis is primarily at the municipality level, as this provides variation needed to identify consequences of policies for both minority and majority groups, depending on the timing of their implementation or the type of policies enacted. We envision the following:

For research question 1, we aim to use CBS (micro)data on the 30 per cent rule and housing prices and construct a neighbourhood segregation measure. We will relate this to data on housing price changes, voting behaviour and survey responses regarding trust in government while controlling for contextual variables.

For research question 2, various scenarios are possible, depending on the methodological skills and interests of the candidate. For example, we could develop a typology of local policy responses to identify variation in local policy practices over time for a sample of municipalities. This can be done via content analysis or web scraping methods for data collection. Following Tjaden and Spörlein (2024), we could distinguish between policies that target specific identity groups separately (e.g., refugees) or policies that mix these groups with other groups (e.g., other groups in need of social housing). Another option is to collect information about how much budget is allocated to specific groups in comparison to more general policies in a given municipality.

Once local policy practices have been categorized, we could connect temporal variation in municipal-level policies with contemporaneous CBS microdata on social cohesion/integration at the municipal level. Alternatively, observational or survey data can be analysed to assess the efficacy of policies that affect these groups and the municipalities in which they reside, while controlling for context-related factors. For causal inference, we can employ applied statistical methods such as difference-in-differences, instrumental variables and/or regression discontinuity models, which suit the longitudinal nature of our municipal-level dataset.

• Core readings

Borjas, G. (2005). The labor market impact of high-skill immigration. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 95(2), 56–60.

Damen, R. E. C., Huijnk, W., & Dagevos, J. (2023). Explaining recently arrived refugees’ labor market participation: The role of policy characteristics among Syrians in the Netherlands. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 4, Article 1028017.