Corruption Exposure, Political Trust, and Immigrants

By Cevat Giray Aksoy, Barry Eichengreen, Anastasia Litina, Cem Özgüzel  and Chan Yu

How does exposure to corruption in home countries affect immigrants’ political trust in their new countries? This paper finds that, contrary to common assumptions, immigrants from corrupt countries tend to exhibit higher trust in national political institutions in their host countries. This trust, which does not extend to international organizations or individuals, leads to greater political participation and persists over time. The effect is stronger when home and host countries differ significantly in income and democracy but is somewhat weakened by media exposure. The paper also finds no evidence of self-selection based on trust, as even forced migrants display similar patterns.