Discrimination and assimilation: Evidence from anti-Chinese sentiments in the United States

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lanzara, Gianandrea; Lazzaroni, Sara; Masella, Paolo; Squicciarini, Mara P.
• 署名单位: University of Bologna; Bocconi University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105450
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: culture; immigrants

摘要

This paper studies the interactions between members of a discriminated minority, members of the majority group, and political leaders. We construct a novel dataset of all tweets posted by White American and Chinese users located in the United States from January to August 2020. Using a variety of supervised and unsupervised text-analysis techniques, we show that anti-Chinese discrimination on Twitter significantly increased following (i) the COVID-19 outbreak, and (ii) Donald Trump's tweet referring to COVID-19 as the Chinese virus. We then study the reaction of the Chinese minority and find that, after Trump's tweet, Chinese users were significantly more likely to (i) tweet assimilation-related content, and (ii) tweet criticism against the Chinese Communist Party. The rise in assimilation-related content is generally stronger for users who were more integrated before the shock.