Contested Identity and Prejudice Against Co-Ethnic Refugees: Evidence From South Korea

Although North Korean refugees are co-ethnics and receive extensive government support, many reports have alleged that they discriminated against in South Korea. We theorize this outcome is due to the contested status of refugees’ co-ethnic identity. test with embedded list experiments on an approximately nationally representative sample Koreans (n = 1418). find (1) hold prejudice primarily because believe supporting these would waste resources; (2) liberals more likely disagree belief while conservatives ambivalent, (3) income predicts better than partisanship or ideology. Scholars focused native-refugee conflict cases where ethnic identity a faultline. However, case shows could be unwelcomed host society if political economic factors make their contested.