Asylum seekers and host country mental health: Evidence from Germany and Switzerland

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bharadwaj, Prashant; Graeber, Daniel; Khoury, Stephanie; Schmid, Christian P. R.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103579
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: Mental health; migration; refugees; Refugee allocation

摘要

Due to recent conflicts and humanitarian issues, millions of people have sought asylum in countries in Europe. The influx of asylum seekers has sparked debates about the impacts of such migratory flows on resident populations. We study how the recent migration of these forcibly displaced people into Europe affects the mental health of the receiving country residents in Switzerland and Germany. We exploit quasi-random variation in asylum seeker placement by matching settlement data with administrative health insurance data on mental health related treatments and survey data capturing self-reported mental health. Despite numerous possible mechanisms, in both countries, we find no economically meaningful effects of asylum seeker flows on residents' mental health.