<b>When the South Moves South: Shifting Attitudes and Behaviors in Response to the Migrant Crisis In Colombia</b>

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation examines how large-scale migration shocks influence attitudes and voting behavior in developing democracies, with a focus on South–South migration, where cultural differences between migrants and host communities are less pronounced. This project argues that in these contexts, public backlash is not primarily driven by cultural grievances but by perceptions of material scarcity, symbolic disorder, and generalized distrust. Using the case of nearly three million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, a country navigating a post-conflict transition, the research employs a difference-in-differences (DiD) design. This approach leverages spatial variation in exposure to migration, specifically the minimum distance to official border crossings, to analyze attitudinal and behavioral shifts.</p><p dir="ltr">The dissertation comprises three empirical chapters. Chapter 1 demonstrates that municipalities closer to the Venezuelan border experienced increased support for right-wing presidential candidates following the onset of the crisis, suggesting that perceived insecurity drives exclusionary political responses. Chapter 2 shows that exposure to migration heightens concerns over access to healthcare, but not education, revealing selective anxieties rooted in the uneven provision of public services. Chapter 3 explores how legacies of violence moderate these patterns, finding that victims of Colombia’s armed conflict who live near the border became more trusting over time, indicating that prosocial attitudes can emerge through sustained exposure.</p><p dir="ltr">These findings offer a nuanced understanding of migration's complex socio-political effects in developing countries. Further, this project contributes to the literature by focusing on South-South migration and post-conflict dynamics, emphasizing context-specific mechanisms (fear, scarcity, trust), improving migration exposure measurement, and providing policy insights for fostering social cohesion and democratic resilience in fragile settings.</p>