The International Transmission of Democratic Values: Evidence from African Migration to Europe 

Abstract:

This paper investigates the effect of rising anti-immigrant sentiment in European democratic host countries on support for democracy in African migrants’ origin communities. We propose a novel methodology to estimate migration stocks from sub-national areas of origin to any possible country in the world based on Google trends data. We use these data alongside measures of anti-immigrant sentiment at destination to study origin communities' exposure to anti-immigrant sentiment. We show that exposure to greater anti- immigrant sentiment led to a deterioration in support for democracy among African citizens and the effect is concentrated in non-democratic countries. We conclude that rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Western democracies has the potential to harm democratic progress in Africa.