Fewer People Moving to Dresden: Right-Wing Protests Scare off Young People!

We use the example of Dresden to investigate how people’s location decisions change due to far-right demonstrations. Our results illustrate that the inflow to Dresden has decreased significantly since the start of the PEGIDA demonstrations. In particular, we find that young Germans from other German states have been less inclined to move to Dresden since then. A large proportion of these young people are students. The number of international students in Dresden also dropped significantly due to far-right demonstrations. One reason for these declines is that Dresden has suffered a loss of image as a result of the far-right protests.