Young Adults’ Feelings about Refugees amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Germany

Introduction 

As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased mortality rates, severe restrictions on mobility, economic losses, and feelings of losing control, there are many perceptions of the nature of the threats stemming from COVID-19. There is a vast literature on how the perception of threat and uncertainty may trigger shifts in how people view, define, and identify themselves. Generally, two competing scenarios are proposed on how large-scale threats, including the COVID-19 outbreak, affect societies and the relations between different subgroups that exist within these societies. One position argues that the exposure to common threats may be helpful to appease once conflicting groups, as global threats may bring about a sense of unity by reinforcing broader and more inclusive group identities (i.e., identification with all humanity).1 Another position, however, posits that the perception of threat exacerbates existing intergroup conflicts by promoting an orientation toward a narrowly defined in-group (i.e., national group) that goes along with the perception of out-group members as competitors for limited resources.2 The present analysis series will explore how feelings about refugees are associated with the perception of the COVID-19 threat, national identification, identification with all humanity, contact with refugees, trust in the government, political orientation, and socio-economic status and gender across different countries. The analysis series will present descriptive results from survey data that has been collected from university-educated young adults (between 18 and 30 years old) through the convenience sampling method. This analysis will present data from Germany.