Matías Bianchi, Nic Cheeseman, and Jennifer Cyr examine an uncomfortable truth: that democracies often fail to reverse the damage after an authoritarian lapse.

"The Myth of Democratic Resilience"

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"Taken together, the combined effect of these factors means that countries are unlikely to improve their democracies after an authoritarian episode—or even to maintain the level of democracy they had before- hand for very long."

Sobering but important read in @jodemocracy.bsky.social

Deadline approaching ⬇️

📣 I’m excited to share that we’re organizing the inaugural meeting of the Scotland Workshop dedicated to Turkish Politics!
📍University of Glasgow
🗓️ 18 June 2025
🗓️ Deadline for Abstract Submission: 30 May
We invite abstract submissions from researchers across Scotland working on Turkish Politics.

📄 Here is the link for the paper:

"Hostility and Avoidance: Refugee Preferences in the Face of Local Attitudes and Politics"

osf.io/preprints/so...

#Refugees #Migration #Turkey #Germany #SyrianRefugees #LocalAttitudes #Belonging

8/
🔍 This study contributes to a growing body of research showing that:

✅Refugees prioritize psychological well-being.
🏛️ Local attitudes and politics matter.

7/
What’s behind this?

Our content analysis shows that refugees' main concerns:

❗Exclusion
❗Discrimination
❗Anxiety
❗Social isolation

Hostile attitudes aren’t just unpleasant, they also erode a basic sense of belonging.

6/

Economic factors like job availability do matter, but their influence is secondary to the local political climate and public attitudes.

Potential for feeling belonging outweighs material gain.

5/

Contrary to assumptions, family ties don’t significantly drive local destination choices.

4/
Refugees are strongly deterred by local hostility, both from public attitudes and from political leaders.

🏙️Local destinations seen as unwelcoming are avoided, even if they offer jobs or social benefits.

3/
📊 We used a choice-based conjoint experiment with 3,000+ Syrian refugees in 🇹🇷 and 🇩🇪, plus content analysis of over 500 qualitative responses in 🇹🇷.

Our core finding?

Local attitudes matter more than economic conditions or social networks.

2/
The refugees' journey does not end when they arrive in the host country. We explore what drives their local destination choices :

➡️ Local attitudes & policies
➡️ Economic conditions
➡️ Social networks

🧵 1/
How do local politics shape where refugees want to live in the host states?

In our new study (w/ Sefa Seçen & Aykut Öztürk), we examine the internal destination preferences of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Germany.

The results are important.👇