Openness and COVID-19 induced xenophobia: The roles of trade and migration in sustainable development

Along with the plight of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 come the xenophobic behaviors and hate crimes against people with Asian descent around the globe. The threat of a public health emergency catalyzed underlying xenophobic sentiments, manifesting them into racial discrimination of various degrees. With most discriminatory acts reported in liberal societies, this article investigates whether an economy more open to trade and migration can be more susceptible to xenophobia. Using our first-hand survey data of 1767 Chinese respondents residing overseas from 65 different countries during February of 2020, we adopt an instrumental variable strategy to identify the causal effect of openness to trade and migration of their residence country on the likelihood of them receiving discriminatory behaviors during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our results show that greater openness to trade increases the likelihood of reported xenophobic behaviors, while openness to migration decreases it. On the other hand, stronger trade or immigration relationships with China are associated with less reported discrimination. And these effects primarily influence discriminatory behavior in interpersonal spaces, rather than through media outlets. Our findings highlight nuances of the effect of trade relations on the culture of a society.