icant in all specifications. These variables are by far the most important predictors of perceptions. Using the method of Sterck (2019), we estimate that the two variables explain about 52% of the variation in respondents’ perception in the cross-country OLS regression – – (Table 4, Column 1). In comparison, the second most important predictor health explains only 1.2% of the variation in respondents’ perception.<sup>19</sup> This result confirms our intuition that perceptions are not formed independently of the context and of other people, but shaped at household and neighbourhood levels.

For instance, the perceptions towards refugees are often shared within a host household, and even transferred across generations within households. In Kampala, we came across several Ugandan families whose parent generation started interacting with refugees in the neighbourhood through day-to-day activities and built positive relationships with refugees. – – In those families, the second generation their children also have dense interactions and similarly favourable views to refugees. Joan, an 18-year-old Ugandan who lives in Katwe, explained how her mother developed a relationship with a Congolese refugee family: My mother came from a rural village to Kampala. My mother and Nelly [a refugee] lived in neighbourhood in Kampala and they went well. They taught English and Swahili each other. Nelly was buying vegetable from my mother so they came to know each other well. (Joan, UGX, Kampala) Joan explained that even after her mother’s death, the positive relationship with Nelly’s family has maintained, which has led to her positive perceptions to refugee communities in general.

Furthermore, host perceptions may be shaped by local gossip as well as government and media narratives. Community-level attitudes towards refugees may be formed through rumours and misinformation, particularly if people lack knowledge about who refugees are. Local government officials in Kampala highlighted that most locals do not fully understand why refugees come to Uganda, sometimes regarding them to be ‘economic migrants’ who compete for opportunities (John, Ugandan, Kampala). Similar perspectives were expressed by host nationals in Kenya, often with an emphasis on a terrorist-related security threat, even in the absence of being able to provide clear evidence to support such claims. According to several Kenyan host community members, whenever Al-Shabaab perpetrated terrorist attacks occur, securitisation by the national government has exacerbated intolerance and hostility towards Somali communities at a local level (see also ReDSS 2015). However, it is possible that the impact of national government campaigns on host community perceptions may be short-term.

> 19 On a related note, all regression specifications controls for physical and mental health, the latter using the widely employed depression measure PHQ9. Interestingly, there is an association between depression and holding more negative attitudes towards refugees. The association is less robust for hosts in Uganda (Table 3) than for the full sample (Table 4). This association also applies to depression among refugees and their opinions of hosts, in line with findings on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-related symptoms and trust in hosts in the recent Kakuma Socioeconomic Survey (Fix et al. 2019).

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