metadata: authors: 0: author: Okunogbe,Oyebola Motunrayo
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docna: 0: docna: Does Exposure to Other Ethnic Regions
            Promote National Integration? : Evidence from Nigeria
docty: Policy Research Working Paper
subtopic: Inequality,Armed Conflict,Educational Sciences,Health Care Services Industry,Social Cohesion
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abstracts: cdata!: This paper examines how temporary
            exposure to a different ethnic region affects national
            integration using original survey data from participants in
            Africa’s largest national youth service program. Seven years
            later, participants randomly assigned to serve in a state
            with a different ethnic majority are five times more likely
            to live all across the country compared to those who served
            in their ethnic region. They have more interethnic romantic
            relationships and express greater national pride.
            Nevertheless, immersion in a different ethnic region
            strengthens participants’ ethnic pride and favorable
            attitudes towards co-ethnics. The results suggest that
            national and ethnic identity can thrive together.
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            Promote National Integration? : Evidence from Nigeria
display_title: Does Exposure to Other Ethnic
            Regions Promote National Integration : Evidence from Nigeria
listing_relative_url: /research/2018/10/30483101/exposure-other-ethnic-regions-promote-national-integration-evidence-nigeria
topicv3: Poverty m1326687 695,Political Violence and Civil War m1326942 739,Education m1327048 470,Political Violence and War m1327310 2462,Health m1504661 3480
publishtoextweb_dt: 2018-10-09T00:00:00Z
historic_topic: Social Development,Industry,Conflict and Development,Education,Poverty Reduction
no_of_pages: 56
author_keys: 0: author_key: 1248579
model_extractions: Policy Research Working Paper 8606 Does Exposure to Other Ethnic Regions Promote National Integration?

Evidence from Nigeria _Oyebola Okunogbe_ Development Economics Development Research Group October 2018
Policy Research Working Paper 8606

# **Abstract**

This paper examines how temporary exposure to a different ethnic region affects national integration using original survey data from participants in Africa’s largest national youth service program. Seven years later, participants randomly assigned to serve in a state with a different ethnic majority are five times more likely to live all across the country compared to those who served in their ethnic region. They have more interethnic romantic relationships and express greater national pride. Nevertheless, immersion in a different ethnic region strengthens participants’ ethnic pride and favorable attitudes towards co-ethnics. The results suggest that national and ethnic identity can thrive together.

This paper is a product of the Development Research Group, Development Economics. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/research. The author may be contacted at ookunogbe@worldbank.org.

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent._ Produced by the Research Support Team
# Does Exposure to Other Ethnic Regions Promote National Integration? Evidence from Nigeria

Oyebola Okunogbe<sup>∗</sup> Originally published in the Policy Research Working Paper Series on _October 2018._ This version is updated on _July 2021._ To obtain the originally published version, please email prwp@worldbank.org.

## JEL codes: D02, D91, J15, O15, R23

Keywords: Nation building, national integration, national service, internal migration, intergroup exposure, interethnic relations, diversity.

> ∗World Bank Research Group, ookunogbe@worldbank.org. I am grateful to Alberto Alesina, Asim Khwaja, Michael Kremer, Nathan Nunn, and Dina Pomeranz for their encouragement, support and advice. I also thank Martin Abel, Oladeji Abubakar, Adigun Agbaje, Kehinde Ajayi, Buchi Ajufo, Natalie Bau, Lori Beaman, Clare Balboni, Michael Callen, Scott Carrell, Juan Pablo Chauvin, Jasmina Chauvin, Pascaline Dupas, Ryan Enos, Paola Giuliano, Shelby Grossman, Leander Heldring, Yusuf Neggers, Emily Nix, Yemi Okunogbe, Philip Osafo-Kwaako, Owen Ozier, Gautam Rao, Tristan Reed, Ryan Sheely, Adam Wagstaff, Laurel Wheeler and numerous seminar participants for their comments and support at different stages of the project. Eze Ihedioha provided helpful research assistance. I appreciate the cooperation of our partner university, survey respondents, and focus group participants, without whom this project would not have been possible. This study was approved by the Harvard Institutional Review Board. It received funding from the Weiss Family Fund, Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science and Lab for Economic Applications and Policy. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper, including any errors, are entirely mine and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors or the governments of the countries they represent.
# **1 Introduction**

National integration is an important policy goal in many nation states. From European states in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to newly independent African, Asian and South American states in the latter half of the 20th century, to OECD countries facing an influx of migrants in the 21st century, national leaders of states with different cultural, religious and social groups have been confronted with the task of nation building: how to forge a national identity and promote cooperative intergroup relations in the face of primordial group loyalties.<sup>1</sup> In many cases, groups are segregated into different regions allowing perpetuation of mistrust (Alesina and Zhuravskaya 2011, Robinson 2017). Promoting integration and actively managing diversity is especially important to many governments given the negative social and economic outcomes that are associated with high levels of ethnic and religious diversity in low-income countries.<sup>2</sup> However, there is limited evidence on the success of current policies.

One approach that a number of countries have adopted to promote integration is to require citizens, especially young people, to live in a different region of the country for a fixed amount of time. Typically, the goal of these programs is to expose participants to the diversity of the country, to foster loyalty to the country and to build a sense of civic responsibility. Since 1973, the Nigerian government has sent cohorts of university graduates to different regions of the country for a mandatory year of national service through its National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Although this intervention lasts for only one year, it comes at a critical juncture in the lives of young people that may have long-lasting effects on their attitudes (Krosnick and Alwin, 1989). The national service programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malaysia and the sent-down movement in China are other

> 1Alesina and Reich (2015) provide many examples and references from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Kenya, Tanzania and China.

> 2See Alesina and La Ferrara 2005 for a review.

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examples of these physical relocation programs.<sup>3</sup> Examples are present in high-income countries as well in programs such as ERASMUS and Teach for America.<sup>4</sup> This paper uses the context of the NYSC in Nigeria to ask: what is the impact of an individual’s temporary exposure to a different ethnic region on his or her actions and attitudes that are important for nation building? It focuses on ethnic exposure because it is the most salient dimension of diversity in this setting. In particular, it studies the impact on members of one of the dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria (the Yoruba) as they become exposed to other groups.<sup>5</sup> The empirical strategy exploits the randomized assignment of NYSC participants to one of the 37 states of the country (excluding the participant’s state of origin).<sup>6</sup> The difference in exposure arises because some participants are posted to a state where they are the ethnic majority (the “control group”) while others are posted to a state outside their ethnic region (the “treatment” group). Compliance with NYSC posting is not perfect; as a result, the analysis uses individuals’ treatment status given by their assigned state of service as an instrument for their actual treatment status and estimates local average treatment effects (LATE) for compliers. Since states in Nigeria differ on other dimensions besides ethnicity, the analysis controls for state characteristics such as distance, religion, urbanization and

> 3Malaysia’s service program seeks to “develop and enhance the spirit of patriotism amongst youths and encourage national integration and racial unity” (National Service Training Department Malaysia 2015). Similarly, one of the objectives of the National Service Scheme in Ghana is to “promote national unity and strengthen the bonds of common citizenship among Ghanaians” (National Service Scheme Ghana 2015). In Kenya, the National Youth Service seeks to promote among its participants, “values of discipline, democracy, citizenship and cooperation” (National Youth Service Kenya 2015).

4As part of its efforts to promote integration among member countries, the European Union enables over 250,000 university students to experience living in a different European country through its ERASMUS study-abroad and international work placement programs. In the United States, programs like Americorps and Teach for America place young people in national service assignments around the country, often in a location from their home communities.

> 5Yorubas are one of three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria. Unlike the other two, Hausa and Igbo, which are majority Muslim and Christian, respectively, Yorubas are made up of both religious groups in similar proportions with a history of peaceful coexistence. As such, in moving to any state of the country, religion would not a primary dimension of exposure they would face as they are familiar with both religions.

> 6Nigeria has 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory. Seven of the states have a Yoruba majority.

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poverty levels.

The randomized assignment also results in each state receiving a diverse cohort of NYSC participants. As such, all corps members, including those in the control group, are exposed to peers from other ethnic groups during their national service. For example, 27 percent of the control group (those who served in a Yoruba majority state) report having a significant amount of daily interactions with Hausas. While substantial, this exposure remains lower than that of those who served in a Hausa majority state as 64 percent of them report a significant amount of daily interactions with Hausas. As such, this paper examines the impact of being immersed in a different ethnic region, relative to being exposed to a cohort of diverse peers.

To measure integration, this paper uses both observable revealed preference outcomes (such as future voluntary migration to other regions of the country outside the context of the program, knowledge of different parts of the country, and close relationships with people from other ethnic groups), as well as stated attitudes towards the country, their ethnic group, and other ethnic groups. To study these questions, I partnered with a public university in southwest Nigeria to administer a phone survey to alumni who participated in NYSC seven years earlier. Collecting outcomes in the context of a broader alumni survey, and not as a study of NYSC, reduces potential concerns of demand bias in participants’ responses.

The results indicate two broad effects of exposure to other regions. The first set of results is that serving outside one’s ethnic region promotes integration, as measured by mobility across regions, knowledge of the country, interethnic romantic relationships and national pride.

Individuals assigned to serve in a different ethnic region are five times as likely to be living outside their ethnic region seven years later (15 percent relative to 3 percent in the 4
control group). This migration is not driven by individuals choosing to remain in their NYSC state or the ethnic region in which they served; rather, exposed participants are also more likely to be living across the country in regions other than where they completed youth service.

The observed increase in migration occurs alongside an increased knowledge of other states. Participants who were previously exposed to a different region of the country have a 13 percentage point higher success rate at identifying governors and capitals of states in other ethnic regions. In contrast, there is no differential knowledge across participants of states within their ethnic region. Again, these results are not limited to the NYSC location; rather, participants become more informed about other regions as well.

Alongside the results on increased knowledge and internal migration, exposure to a different ethnic region increases participants’ sense of national pride as measured in the survey. During focus groups and interviews, participants attribute this to an increased appreciation of the diversity of the country and the realization that they belong to an entity larger than their group.

Further, participants that served in a different ethnic region due to NYSC are more likely to have dated or be currently married to someone from the ethnic group to which they were exposed during their national service. Interestingly, this effect occurs even though I am unable to detect any meaningful improvement in feelings of trust or closeness towards other ethnic groups.<sup>7</sup> This suggests that living in a different ethnic region did not lead to a significant amount of further updating on attitudes towards other groups, relative to any changes in attitudes that may have resulted from exposure to a diverse cohort. Instead, living in a different ethnic group may have provided more opportunity for relationships to develop, conditional on a given affinity level.

> 7I can rule out an increase of 0.27 s.d. and a decrease of 0.32 s.d.

5
The second set of results indicate that serving in a different ethnic region leads participants to develop greater attachment to their ethnic group. Participants who live among outside ethnic groups during national service have greater ethnic pride and improved attitudes towards their own group. This reinforcement of participants’ ethnic identity is consistent with a large body of work on social identity theory (Sherif et al 1954, Tajfel and Turner 1979, Tajfel 1982) which predicts that immersion in a foreign culture increases the salience of participants’ ethnic identity and spurs participants to compare, and favorably consider, their culture in contrast to other cultures. Importantly, the results contrast with the common view that national and ethnic identity are mutually exclusive. Rather, the findings indicate that they can thrive together.

These findings contribute to three main bodies of work. First, this paper increases our understanding of the impact of nation-building policies in low and middle-income countries (Miguel 2004, Kevane 2008, Collier 2009, Bandyopadhyaya and Green 2013). It provides some of the early empirical evidence on the role of physical relocation programs on national integration. Bazzi et. al (2018) find positive long-term impacts on use of national language and interethnic marriage from a program that permanently relocated voluntary migrants to outlying islands in Indonesia. This paper finds sustained impacts from only one year of living in a different ethnic region during an important transition phase. Bagues and Roth (2020) and Caceres-Delpiano et al (2020) use the randomized assignments of military conscripts in Spain and find that, among those from regions with peripheral Spanish identity, serving in a different region leads to long-term stronger identification with Spain. This paper highlights how different elements of relocation programs can affect different aspects of national integration and lead to the development of _both_ ethnic and national identity.

More broadly, this paper contributes to a large literature in social psychology, political science, and economics on the effects of social interaction and the formation of social 6
attitudes. There is a large number of empirical papers that examine the contact hypothesis (Allport 1954) that interactions with other groups will increase understanding and reduce bias (Boisjoly et al 2006, Burns et al 2015, Carrell et al 2015, Dobbie and Fryer 2015, Scacco and Warren 2018, Rao 2019, Lowe 2020, Mousa 2020).<sup>8</sup> The typical setting in this literature considers the impact of interacting with individuals, such as roommates, classmates or teammates, from a different race or socio-economic status, with whom one would have had minimal contact otherwise. In contrast, this paper examines the intensive margin of exposure to other groups, as the greater degree of interactions that result from being posted to a different ethnic region is relative to a control group that has a meaningful level of interactions with other ethnic groups. In addition, unlike most existing studies that provide results within a short time frame of one to three years, this paper presents results seven years later when individuals are completely removed from the institutional setting in which the exposure occurred.

Finally, this paper relates to a large literature on the determinants and impacts of migration. The large effects of temporary migration to another ethnic region on future voluntary migration indicate that migration is an “experience good” (Bryan et al 2014). Temporary relocation programs may thus increase efficient allocation of human capital across regions and have potentially significant impacts on economic growth.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the National Youth Service Corps program while Section 3 discusses the empirical strategy and addresses possible challenges to identification. Section 4 provides a conceptual framework for the nature of exposure that occurs in this setting. Section 5 reports and discusses results on the impact of interethnic exposure on outcomes of interest and Section 6 concludes by highlighting policy implications and areas for future research.

> 8See Paluck et al 2019 for a review of this literature.

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# **2 The National Youth Service Corps**

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a one-year, mandatory program for Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions (university, monotechnic or polytechnic), who are less than 30 years old at the time of graduation.<sup>9</sup> The government enforces participation by making it illegal for private or public sector employers to employ any graduate who does not possess an NYSC completion or exemption certificate. With over 200,000 participants annually, it has an annual budget of 75 billion naira (about US$400 million in 2014)<sup>10</sup> making it by far the largest government program targeted at youths (Federal Government of Nigeria 2014 Budget).

NYSC was established in 1973 after the devastating Nigerian civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970. The civil war was fought along ethnic lines, as the majority Igbo SouthEastern Region seceded to form the Republic of Biafra following severe violence against Igbos in different parts of Nigeria. From its inception, an explicit goal of NYSC was to reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild post-war Nigeria. It was designed to address the dual objectives of meeting national development needs (especially in parts of the country with less skilled labor) and promoting national integration (NYSC Act of 1973, Olutola 1979). The youth mobilized into the program were expected to mitigate the acute shortage and uneven distribution of skilled labor across the country. At the same time, by enrolling youth from different regions of the country to serve together and by exposing them to the modes of living in different parts of Nigeria, it sought to “remove ignorance and prejudice and promote national unity” (NYSC Act of 1973). As such, the focus on tertiary-educated youths is in recognition of their potential as national leaders and influencers, as well as

> 9Besides those over 30 at graduation, exemptions are also granted to those who have received national honors or served in the armed forces, police or other security agency.

> 10This amount is about one-quarter of the health budget, one-fifth of the defence budget and one-sixth of the education budget.

8
their ability to provide skilled labor.

The introduction of NYSC was met initially with some resistance and public protests (Sanda 1976, Marenin 1979) but over time, it became established as a core institution in Nigeria. It is now enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (Section 315) and its influence extends to all local governments of the country through the presence of corps members. Nevertheless, NYSC remains a controversial topic in Nigeria and there are regular demands for its termination in the popular press from critics decrying its large costs and limited impact. On the other hand, supporters claim it plays a significant role in promoting intergroup harmony. However, there has been limited empirical evidence on the impact of the program.<sup>11</sup> The service year is divided into four components: orientation, primary assignment, community development and passing out ceremony. It begins with a regimented three-week orientation camp in each state. Corps members are required to wear uniforms throughout the camp and are not permitted to leave. Orientation exercises, such as physical training and drills, sports competitions, lectures on different social issues, language classes, and social activities, are designed to internalize the ideals of the program, build camaraderie among corps members and introduce them to their host state.

At the end of the orientation, corps members receive posting letters to a “place of primary assignment” in a local government within the state. They work at this position for the remainder of the year, mostly as school teachers but also as staff in hospitals, government offices, private companies and non-profit organizations. Corps members receive a monthly stipend comparable to the federal minimum wage (equivalent to about $100 in 2015) from the government, and often, a supplemental stipend and/or housing from their employer.

> 11Existing studies (e.g Marenin 1979, 1989, Obadare 2005, Sanda 1976) are very informative but there are selection concerns in the choice of comparison groups.

9
A third component of the program is community development service (CDS). One day each week, instead of working at the place of primary assignment, corps members work on community service projects in teams. CDS teams serve in a variety of ways such as environmental sanitation and beautification projects, HIV sensitization, extra-mural classes for secondary school students, road safety campaigns, among others. Lastly, at the end of the year, upon receipt of a clearance letter from participants’ primary employers confirming satisfactory completion of their duties, NYSC issues a certificate of completion to corps members in a passing out ceremony (NYSC 2015a).

# **3 Data**

## **3.1 Alumni Data**

The data for this paper come from alumni administrative records and a phone survey with previous NYSC participants from a Nigerian university. This university is a large public university with fees subsidized by the government, so it attracts students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The university is in a Yoruba majority region and about 75 percent of students are Yoruba. The analysis is limited to Yoruba participants as there were too few participants from each of the other ethnic groups for meaningful inferences to be drawn. Besides, since non-Yoruba participants had been living in a Yoruba region throughout their undergraduate studies, they have in some way been “treated” with intergroup exposure.

The administrative data includes the following variables: name, gender, date of birth, state of origin,<sup>12</sup> matriculation cohort, date of graduation, course studied at matriculation, course studied at graduation, and marital status at graduation. The university also had

> 12State of origin in Nigeria refers to the state in which an individual’s traditional hometown/ village is located, regardless of whether the person has ever lived there.

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phone numbers and email address for some alumni. Given the interest in observing impacts on long term outcomes, the 2008 NYSC cohort was selected for the phone survey as it is the earliest year for which there is significant contact information for alumni.

The alumni survey includes questions on respondents’ current and previous locations, migration preferences, attitudes towards Nigeria and other ethnic groups, close relationships, demographic information as well as a quiz on knowledge of other states. To avoid priming respondents and to minimize experimenter demand bias, the survey was introduced as an alumni survey and there was no mention of NYSC until the last section of the survey.

The university sent out emails and mobile phone text messages to the contact list describing the alumni survey, requesting their current phone numbers and alerting respondents that they would be contacted by the research team. Trained enumerators attempted to contact all potential respondents with available phone numbers for a survey using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software. After successfully interviewing participants, interviewers asked them for names and contact information for their exclassmates. In addition, the survey team sent emails to all respondents to thank them for their participation and to request further referrals that may not have been provided during the phone interview. The team also used social media (Facebook, Linked In and webpages) to identify and contact individuals and request their current contact information but these avenues were less successful than the phone referrals.

Using all the contact information compiled, enumerators completed interviews with 644 participants, 51 percent of the 1,256 in the cohort. Only 4 percent of the attempted interviews were refused. Most unsuccessful attempts were due to a lack of current contact information for participants.<sup>13</sup> Among applicants the survey team could contact (i.e. 13Although most individuals in Nigeria have mobile phones, their phone numbers change frequently.

11
interviewed plus refusals), the survey completion rate was therefore 92 percent.

Participants posted to a state with a Yoruba majority completed the survey at a 47 percent rate compared to 52 percent for those posted to non-Yoruba majority states and this difference is not statistically significant. Appendix Table A1 provides summary statistics from administrative data and survey data.

# **3.2 State Characteristics Data**

There are 36 states (and a Federal Capital Territory) in Nigeria, and ethnicity is a major characteristic of states. There are three major ethnic groups (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba), alongside over 200 others. Hausas, often grouped together with Fulanis, are based in northern Nigeria. They are predominantly Muslim and have some of the highest poverty rates in the country. Igbos have relatively higher income, are predominantly Christian and are based in the southeast. Yorubas are also relatively of higher income, about evenly split between Christian and Muslim and are located in the southwestern part of Nigeria. The Yoruba region includes Lagos State, the largest commercial hub in Nigeria. Using the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2008), which is representative at the state level, I calculate the share of ethnic groups in each state and classify a state as having an ethnic majority if more than 50 percent of the population belongs to one ethnic group.<sup>14</sup> This produces three majority regions (Hausa-Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba majority regions). Following the geopolitical categorization used in Nigeria, I divide the remaining states, those without any majority ethnic group, into two groups: Southern Minorities and Northern Minorities. Figure 1 illustrates the geographic distribution of different ethnic groups across states in Nigeria.

Besides ethnic composition, states of Nigeria differ along other dimensions such as reli-

> 14I use the NDHS because the national census and other national surveys in Nigeria do not collect ethnicity information due to the political sensitivity of ethnicity.

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gion, geographic distance, poverty and rural share (see Figure 2). The two main religions are Christianity and Islam. I calculate the share of the population practicing each religion from the National Demographic and Health Survey 2008. For distance, I calculate geographic distance from the university town to the capital of each state using ArcGIS. I obtain poverty data for each state from the National Poverty Profile Report 2010 from the National Bureau of Statistics. I calculate rural share for each state from the rural/ urban classification of local governments from Census file 2006. Random assignment to states also creates exogenous exposure to these state attributes, some of which are highly correlated with ethnicity. In particular, compared to Yoruba majority states, non-Yoruba states are further away and more rural.

# **4 Methodology**

## **4.1 NYSC Randomized State Assignments**

NYSC seeks to encourage “the development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity” (NYSC 2015b). As a result, a unique feature of the program is that participants are randomly assigned to one of the 37 states of the country, with the intention that the composition of the cohort in each state reflects the national diversity. This randomized assignment will be the main feature of the program that the research design will exploit.<sup>15</sup> NYSC randomized assignments provide that participants posted to different states are similar in expectation. Therefore, participants posted to states in which their ethnic group is the majority (the “control group”) should be otherwise similar to those posted to states in which they are not the majority (the “treatment group”). As a result, any differences

> 15An alternative identification strategy would be to measure the impact of participating in NYSC altogether by using the discontinuity in participation from graduating before age 30. The available sample in this study is not sufficient for this analysis and I plan to explore this in future research.

13
in outcomes between the two groups can be attributed to the state to which they were assigned to serve.<sup>16</sup> The randomization procedure is as follows: Each university submits a list of its graduating class to NYSC. This list includes the name, gender, marital status, date of birth, course of study, state of origin, and date of graduation. NYSC identifies those who are above 30 years old at graduation and issues them a certificate of exemption, as they are not eligible to serve. Married women and those with chronic illnesses are required to submit documentation in support of their status and are manually assigned to their family’s home state.

All other graduates are randomly assigned to the different states of the country using a computer algorithm. According to NYSC staff, the algorithm takes into consideration the following factors: meeting the manpower needs in different parts of the country, ensuring that no student is posted to his or her home state, and producing a cohort of corps members in each state that reflects the diversity of the overall graduating cohort in the country. NYSC sends back the list of students and their state postings to universities that then distribute to students.

There are two stages in which state assignments may depart from the randomization protocol. First, after students receive their assignment, they may request to be redeployed to a different state given the provisions for health or family reasons (genuine or otherwise), or they may wait until the next batch of postings to be remobilized. As such, the state in which an individual serves may be different from the assigned state. Matching the survey data and administrative data reveals that 87 percent of participants serve in their assigned state. Of the 13 percent that do not, only one individual redeploys from a Yoruba state

> 16Without the exogenous variation from NYSC assignments, it would be misleading to simply compare people living in their ethnic homeland to those who are not since different unobservable characteristics such as openness to other cultures, tolerance, ambition, may affect the migration decision.

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to a non-Yoruba state. In the phone survey, participants are asked whether they served in the state they were originally posted to or whether they redeployed. I crosscheck their responses with administrative data available on the state they were posted to in that cohort and the state in which they report to have served and I observe that 89 percent of those I observe to have redeployed admit to doing so. In the empirical analysis, I use the treatment status from the original state a student was assigned to as an instrument for the state in which they ultimately served.

Second, there are also reports of students using personal connections or other means to influence their original assignment. The survey asks students whether or not they influenced their posting to their desired state. Ten percent say they did so.<sup>17</sup> While there is no available administrative data to verify their responses, given the high level of accurate responses on the redeployment question, I take their responses as given. To account for these potential endogenous moves, I focus the analysis on those who do not report influencing their posting. I include results on the full sample in the appendix and find that the impacts are qualitatively similar, suggesting that national integration outcomes were not the primary driver of deviations from random assignment.<sup>18</sup> The crucial feature of the randomized allocation is that the characteristics of corps members should not determine their state postings. Analysis of the university administrative data reveals patterns that are consistent with the assignment rules. All the analyses exclude women who are married at the time of posting (3.3 percent of the cohort) as their posting is explicitly non-random. The rule of not posting students to their home state is followed in 99.7% of cases.

To examine whether individual characteristics are correlated with treatment status,

> 17Only 13 percent of those who say they influenced their posting served in a non-Yoruba state.

> 18Fifty percent of those who say they influenced their postings served in Lagos state, the economic capital of Nigeria, suggesting that access to economic opportunities may have been a key motivation.

15
I regress a given characteristic of the state to which a student was posted on available individual variables from administrative data at the time of posting (age, gender, marital status, whether the student graduated on time, and whether the student transferred to another department). In addition, during the survey, I collect additional variables on student characteristics that may affect their willingness to serve in different parts of the country and their ability to potentially influence their postings: religion (students may be more willing to serve in regions with the same religion), states of the country in which they lived before NYSC (people who have previously lived outside their ethnic groups may be willing to do so again), type of secondary school attended (private schools are typically more expensive compared to state or Federal government schools and may indicate socioeconomic status; also, Federal government schools are usually more diverse as they attract students from different states of the country and so present an avenue for prior interethnic exposure), and whether either parent has tertiary education (an indicator of socioeconomic influence and status). The regressions follow the same empirical specification as the results and include fixed effects for the course studied as well as the state of origin as these variables are used in assigning students.

Table 1 provides the results of the randomization balance checks for being posted to a non-Yoruba state (the primary independent variable used in this paper) as well as a continuous measure (share of Yoruba in state of posting). It uses participant baseline characteristics from both administrative and survey data for the main survey sample used in subsequent analyses (those that did not report influencing their postings). A joint F-test fails to reject the null hypothesis that student characteristics do not predict being posted to a non-Yoruba region with a p-value of 0.787. Appendix Table A2 reports the p-values of the joint F-test for the same analysis conducted using other state characteristics (distance, Muslim majority, rural and poverty level). Columns 1 and 2 cover the main analysis sample, 16
columns 3 and 4 include all students that were successfully surveyed, and column 5 includes all Yoruba students in the cohort. Columns 1 and 3 use baseline student characteristics from both administrative and survey data while columns 2, 4 and 5 use administrative data only. In all, the results indicate that participants’ postings based on these different state characteristics are not systematically correlated with participant characteristics.

# **4.2 Empirical Specification**

Since compliance with NYSC state assignment is not perfect, I use the ethnic composition of the assigned state as an instrumental variable to estimate the effect of the ethnic composition of the state in which the individual serves. This yields the local average treatment effect (LATE) for those for whom the NYSC assignment determines their state of service. Since there are essentially no defiers (only one individual who is untreated takes up treatment), the LATE can be interpreted as the “treatment on the treated.” With 87 percent compliance with treated assignment, there is a strong first stage with F-statistic of 1176. The primary estimation equation is where _Yiosp_ are the outcomes of interest (migration decisions, knowledge, attitudes towards the nation, towards own ethnic group, and attitudes towards and relationships with other ethnic groups) for individual _i_ from state of origin _o_ posted to state _p_ and served in state _s_ . _ServeNonY oruba_ is an indicator variable for whether the participant served in a different ethnic region (instrumented by a dummy variable for whether the participant was posted to a state in a different ethnic region).<sup>19</sup> _Xiosp_ is a vector of controls (age, female,

> 19The explanatory variable could also be a continuous measure–the share of non-Yoruba in the state. However, as Figure 2 shows, most of the variation in share of Yorubas occurs within the Yoruba region as there are very few Yorubas in any other state. For this reason, as well as to have a reference “treatment”

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Muslim, married, course studied, graduated on time, changed course, pre-NYSC exposure to non-Yoruba regions, type of secondary school and parents with tertiary education). All regressions include fixed effects for participant state of origin and interviewer and the standard errors are clustered by the posting state.

As long as NYSC state assignment only affects outcomes by inducing participants to serve in the assigned state, this provides an unbiased estimate of _β_ . For instance, the instrument would not be valid if receiving an undesireable posting caused people to have persistent negative views towards the country. Although it is not possible to rule out a direct effect of the posting, this is unlikely, as there is widespread acceptance that there is a fair chance of being posted to any part of the country.

An alternative specification includes other characteristics of the state in which an individual serves (also instrumented by the assigned state) as control variables to show the remaining impact of exposure to other ethnic groups. As with the primary independent variable of being a non-Yoruba majority state, the other state characteristics used are also transformed into indicator variables. They are serving in a state with: more than 50 percent muslim, above-median distance from the university town, above-median poverty rate and above-median rural share.

It is possible that the overall effect of the impact of serving in a non-Yoruba state masks ethnic-specific effects. I use equation 2 to examine the impact of serving in each of the four non-Yoruba regions. Here also, the ethnic majority of the state to which an individual was posted is used as an instrument for the ethnicity of the state in which they served.

� � � _Yiops_ = _α_ 2 + _β_ 2 _aServeHausa_ + _β_ 2 _bServeNorthernMinorities_ + _β_ 2 _cServeIgbo_ � (2) + _β_ 2 _dServeSouthernMinorities_ + _γ_ 2 _Xiosp_ + _ηo_ 2 + _ρint_ 2 + _εip_ and “control” group, I primarily use the indicator variable.

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# **5 Conceptual Framework**

The structure of the NYSC service year results in two layers of interethnic exposure that have different implications for the outcomes. First, due to the randomized state assignments, all participants are exposed to a diverse _cohort_ as each state receives participants from across the country. During the orientation camp as well as during the weekly community service projects, participants live and work alongside other college graduates from different states of the country.

Intergroup contact theory (Allport 1954, Brown and Hewstone 2005) states that, under appropriate conditions, interpersonal contact is one of the most effective ways to reduce prejudice and increase tolerance between groups. Consistent with this, there is a growing literature that reveals a positive impact of interactions with other racial, religious or socio-economic groups on attitudes and behavior such as empathy, generosity, support for affirmative action, and racial tolerance (Boisjoly et al 2006, Fryer and Dobbie 2015, Burns et al 2015, Carrell et al 2015, Rao 2019, Lowe 2020, Mousa 2020).

The conditions laid out for intergroup contact theory are: equal status, common goals, intergroup cooperation, support of authority and personal interaction. With the NYSC camp activities, corps uniform, teamwork to complete service projects, and same level of education of participants, this layer of exposure has features that are expected to promote positive intergroup relationships. It is crucial to note that this exposure to a diverse cohort is common to all NYSC participants: both the treatment and control group in this study experience this level of diversity exposure to the same degree and, as such, any changes resulting from this layer of exposure will be undetected. Identifying this effect would require a comparison group that did not participate in NYSC.

The second layer of exposure, resulting also from the randomized assignments and which is the focus of this paper, is that participants are exposed to different ethnic _communities_ .

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Unlike the control group, the treatment group participants are immersed in communities where they are not the ethnic majority. Within these ethnically different communities, they interact with students, co-workers, clients and other members of the local community as they carry out the day-to-day activities of the primary assignment. This layer of exposure may have different implications.

First, the exposure to a specific location increases exposure to the ethnic group among which the individual serves to a greater degree than the level of exposure obtained from being in a diverse NYSC cohort. As such, the individual may have a better understanding of the ethnicity to which they were exposed which results in improved attitudes and interpersonal relationships. However, given the nature of these relationships (most common is student-teacher), the ideal conditions of intergroup contact theory may not be fulfilled and there may be no improvement in attitudes.

Second, living in a different ethnic region may lead to a greater attachment to the country as a whole. For example, experiencing the physical and cultural diversity of the country and recognizing the different groups with whom they share a nationality may expand participants’ concept of the entity to which they belong. As such, this exposure could lead individuals to broaden their identity beyond their ethnic group and embrace a national identity, as well as improve their attitudes and relationships with other groups beyond the specific group to which they were exposed. In addition, this exposure may enable participants overcome familiarity bias as direct experience with a different region of the country may increase their likelihood of migrating to unfamiliar regions in the future.

Third, living among a different ethnicity may lead to a greater attachment to participants’ ethnic group. For treated participants, being immersed in a different ethnic community represents a change from being a member of a majority group to being a minority in their new context. This change of status may make participants’ ethnic identity more 20
salient (Bisin and Verdier 2000, Bisin et al 2015, Connor 1972) and lead to a closer identification with their own group. Social identity theory describes how in different settings, individuals categorize themselves into groups, and the different social groups to which an individual belongs are associated with positive or negative connotations (Tajfel and Turner 1979, Tajfel 1982). The theory posits that individuals strive to maintain or enhance their self-esteem and as such, they seek to gain a positive social identity by favorably comparing their in-group to the relevant out-groups.

In sum, whereas both control and treatment group participants may experience improved intergroup attitudes as a result of being exposed to a diverse cohort, those who serve in a different ethnic region may develop increased understanding of the ethnic groups in which they served and/or a stronger attachment to the nation from experiencing the diversity of the country and overcoming a fear of the unknown. In addition, the experience of being a minority among a different group may reinforce their attachment to their ethnic group.

# **6 Results and Discussion**

This section begins with describing the NYSC experience of respondents to show that the treatment assignments created greater interactions with other ethnic groups. Then, it discusses the impact of interethnic exposure on different aspects of national integration. The outcomes include both revealed preference measures such as interethnic migration, knowledge of states, marriage and dating decisions as well as attitudinal measures such as willingness to migrate, national and ethnic identity, and feelings of closeness and trust towards different ethnic groups.

Tables 2-5 report results for the different sets of outcomes. The odd-numbered columns report results from the main specification while even-numbered columns include controls 21
for other state characteristics.

Since the overall impact of serving in a non-Yoruba state may mask ethnic specific effects, using Eq.(2), Table 6 presents similar outcomes as Tables 2-5 but provides ethnicspecific outcome variables as well as ethnic-specific treatments. For example, as a parallel to column 1 in Table 2 where the outcome is having more than half of daily interactions with Yorubas, the outcomes in rows 1-4 of Table 6 are having more than half of daily interactions with Hausas, Northern minority groups, Igbos, and Southern minority groups, respectively. In addition, instead of having a single explanatory variable of serving in a nonYoruba state, each regression (row) in Table 6 has four explanatory variables for serving in a Hausa state, Northern minority state, Igbo state, or Southern minority state. Appendix Tables A3-A7 present parallel results to Tables 2-6 but for the full survey sample.

# **6.1 Degree and Types of Interactions with Host Communities**

NYSC location has a strong impact on the degree of interethnic interactions individuals had during their service year. I measure participants’ patterns of interethnic interactions during NYSC with the question: _“Please think about the people you mostly interacted with during NYSC, at home and at work, about what share of them were from each ethnic group [Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Other Northern group, Other Southern group]?”_ For each group, the possible answers are: None, Just a few, Less than half (but more than a few), More than half (but not almost all), Almost all.<sup>20</sup> For ease of exposition, I use an indicator variable to classify participants as having a significant level of interactions with other groups if they report having “less than half (but more than a few),” “more than half,” or “almost all” interactions occurring with a particular group. Alternatively, I classify participants as

> 20Piloting the survey revealed that respondents found it easier to respond in this manner than with actual percentages. Enumerators were trained to ensure that the responses were consistent e.g. there could not be more than one group with a “more than half” or “almost all” response.

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having majority of their interactions with a group for responses that are “more than half,” or “almost all.” Figure 3 shows the proportion of participants having a significant amount (Panel A) or majority (Panel B) of their interactions with each of the three major ethnic groups, for each region to which participants were posted.

Serving in a non-Yoruba region decreases interactions with Yorubas and increases interactions with other ethnic groups. Among participants who served in a Yoruba state, 53 percent had more than half of their regular interactions with other Yorubas during the service year. However, serving in a non-Yoruba region reduces this share of participants by 28 percentage points (Table 2, column 1).

As expected, the results from Table 6 (rows 1-4) indicate that serving in a given ethnic region leads to greater interactions with the local ethnicity during NYSC: serving in Hausa and Igbo states increases the share of respondents that had more than half their interactions with Hausas and Igbos by 44 percentage points and 43 percentage points respectively. Similarly, participants who serve in a Northern minority state have more interactions with both Hausas and northern minorities while those who serve in Southern minority states have more interactions with Igbos and Southern minorities.

Further, participants report positive interactions with the local communities. Eightyfour percent of participants visited locals at home, 69 percent attended celebrations such birthdays, weddings, and naming ceremonies, 54 percent received a parting gift from the local community when leaving and 61 percent are still in touch with people from the local community. In all, participants felt very welcome in host communities (average of 4.5 on a 5 point scale). I create a quality of stay index using the standardized mean of these variables and find no evidence suggesting that exposed participants were poorly treated in their host communities. On the contrary, exposed participants, on average, report more 23
positive interactions (0.24 s.d.) with their local community (Table 2, column 3). Table 6 (row 5) reveals that participants that served in Hausa states report a statistically significant lower quality of stay compared to other non-Yoruba regions.

# **6.2 Internal Migration and Knowledge of Other States**

A key aspect of national integration is the free movement of people across the country. From inception, one of the stated objectives of NYSC has been “to encourage members of the service corps to seek, at the end of their corps service, career employment all over the country thus promoting free movement of labour” (NYSC 2015b). I examine the extent to which participants who served in a different ethnic region become more likely to make their homes outside their ethnic homeland.

I find that interethnic exposure during NYSC results in a fivefold increase in the likelihood that an individual lives outside their ethnic region seven years later. The interethnic migration rate for control group subjects is 3.3 percent. This is similar to the overall rate among the Yoruba: only about 5 percent of Yorubas live outside their ethnic homeland (estimate calculated from NDHS 2008).<sup>21</sup> Table 3 (column 1) shows that, using the IV regression framework, the treatment effect is 14.4 percentage points.

Living outside one’s ethnic region after being exposed is not simply due to individuals remaining in (or returning to) the NYSC location, for example, by obtaining a permanent position with the NYSC employer or finding a job through a network of contacts. Only 20 percent of the 15.4 percent of treated participants living outside their ethnic region are living in their NYSC service state. The remaining 80 percent are living in non-coethnic states other than their NYSC state.

> 21There is significant variation in interethnic migration rates across ethnic groups; for example, over 20 percent of Igbos live outside their ethnic homeland. The rate for Hausas is similar to Yorubas at about 4 percent.

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Similarly, the higher interethnic migration is not concentrated in the ethnic region in which an individual served which would suggest culture-specific channels such as learning the local language. Rather, of the 15.6 percent of treated participants living outside their ethnic region, 60 percent (9.7 percentage points) are in a different ethnic region from where they served.<sup>22</sup> Columns 3 and 5 of Table 3 respectively show that participants who served outside their ethnic region are 11 percentage points more likely to be living in a non-Yoruba state that is not the NYSC state and 7.5 percentage points more likely to be living in a non-Yoruba state that is not in the NYSC region. In particular, Table 6 (rows 6-9) shows that serving in a Hausa state leads to higher migration to all regions in the future.

The following sub-sections present two complementary findings that shed light on possible reasons for the increase in interethnic migration: their knowledge of different states of the country, and their willingness to move in response to economic opportunities.

# **6.2.1 Knowledge of Other States**

As a simple test of knowledge, I ask participants to name the capitals of three given states and the governors of a different set of three states. For each set of three states, one of the states is in southwestern Nigeria (Yoruba region) while the other two are in two different non-Yoruba regions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, participants are on average significantly more aware of states in their ethnic region. Overall, 90 percent and 83 percent of participants provide the correct state capital and state governor for Yoruba-majority states. Their performance drops significantly for other regions: 66 percent and 70 percent, respectively, provide the correct state capitals for states in the North (Hausa and Northern Minorities regions) and in the South (Igbo and Southern Minorities regions). For the question on state governors, 22This is an underestimate because people who served in the northern and southern minority regions and are now living there may be living in a different culture from the one they were exposed to during NYSC.

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27 percent and 33 percent had the correct answers for the North and South non-Yoruba regions, respectively. I create a Knowledge of States index using the average share of correct responses to the 4 questions on non-Yoruba states and, separately, the 2 questions on Yoruba states.

Interethnic exposure during NYSC has a positive and significant impact on knowledge of other states. Column 7 of Table 3 shows that exposed participants are 13.1 percentage points more likely to provide the correct answers for capitals and governors of states in non-Yoruba regions. Notably, as with the migration result, this effect is not limited to the state in which the respondent served; rather, exposed participants become more aware of states in different regions of the country. To illustrate this, the dependent variable in Table 3, column 9 is coded to indicate giving correct answers for states that are outside the individual’s ethnic region and outside the state in which they served. The coefficient on interethnic exposure reduces slightly to 10.8 percentage points and remains statistically significant. In contrast, interethnic exposure does not affect (the already high levels of) knowledge of governors and capitals in Yoruba states (column 11). Rows 10 and 11 of Table 6 also reflect this finding as those who serve in one region also become more knowledgeable about other regions.

# **6.2.2 Willingness to Migrate**

I elicit respondents’ willingness to migrate by asking them how likely they will be to accept a hypothetical job offer with a given salary increase (10%, 50% or 100%) in their current field of work but in a different state. I ask the questions for states in three regions of the country (one question for Yoruba region and two questions for non-Yoruba regions). The possible responses are Very Unlikely (1), Unlikely (2), Likely(3) and Very Likely (4).

Before turning to the treatment effect, I highlight two observations from the data. First, 26
as expected, the higher the salary increase, the more willing individuals are to move. On the 4-point scale, the average willingness to move to different locations is 2.2 for a 10% increase, 2.6 for a 50% increase and 2.9 for a 100% increase. Second, respondents have clear preferences across locations. On average, across the three income levels, respondents are least willing to move to a Hausa region (1.9 on 4-point scale), followed by Igbo region (2.6) and most willing to move within their Yoruba ethnic region (3.2).

I find that serving in a non-Yoruba region has a positive but not statistically significant impact (p=0.15) on an individual’s willingness to move for an hypothetical job across the three salary levels (Table 3, column 13).<sup>23</sup> There is no significant evidence that this effect varies by the region of NYSC service (Table 6, rows 12 and 13).

# **6.2.3 Discussion**

The results in this section show that if individuals are mandated to relocate from their ethnic region once, they become more likely to do so voluntarily in the future. In particular, those who served in a Hausa state (the least desirable region from the hypothetical question and where treated participants had the least favorable stay) are the most mobile across different regions of the country. This suggests that surviving in an undesired location may increase confidence to explore other regions of the country. As such, reducing the mental barrier of the fear of the unknown may be a major channel through which increased geographical mobility occurs.

In a very early review of NYSC, shortly after the civil war, Sanda (1976) reports that: _“Many Nigerian adults, especially the parents, were haunted by [...] fear for the safety of their children when and if they are deployed to serve the nation outside the geographical limits of their ethnic groups. With Nigeria’s recent history of ethnic antagonisms, such_

> 23The coefficients are of similar magnitude for each of the three salary levels and only statistically significant (p=0.058) for the 10 percent increase in salary

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_fears could not be dismissed as imaginary.”_ Although the civil war ended 45 years prior, there are persistent ethnic tensions in Nigeria that occasionally escalate to localized violence. With limited exposure and information about other regions, it is easy for individuals’ perceptions of other ethnic regions to be defined by these events. Even when the specific “other” region is not violence-prone, individuals may feel it is unsafe. For example, an interview respondent described how he always felt scared of going to “the North” while growing up in Yorubaland. It was only after NYSC exposure that he was able to overcome his fear of all northern states.

Although an analysis of economic impact is beyond the scope of this paper, the evidence suggests that reducing these mental barriers to migration could have potentially significant economic growth effects for the country by increasing efficient allocation of labor. Bryan and Morten (2015) develop a structural model, which they estimate with data from the US and Indonesia, to show how lower physical and cultural migration costs are associated with higher productivity by facilitating the movement of labor to where it is most productive. In this paper, I provide evidence on a policy that potentially reduces these cultural costs.

# **6.3 National and Ethnic Identity**

A core aspect of national integration is for individuals to develop a sense of national identity, besides their ethnic identity. I ask participants about their sense of national pride, as well as ethnic pride: “ _Using a scale of 1-7 where 1 means “Not proud at all” and 7 means “Extremely proud”, how proud do you feel to be a Nigerian (Yoruba)?_ ”. I also ask about which of the two identities they identify more with: “ _If you had to choose between being a Nigerian and being a Yoruba, which of these two groups do you feel more attached to?_ ” where possible responses are Feel only Yoruba (0), Feel more Yoruba than Nigerian (1), Feel more Nigerian than Yoruba (2), and Feel only Nigerian (3).

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Serving in a non-Yoruba region increases _both_ national and ethnic pride by 0.3 standard deviations (Table 4, columns 1 and 3). Table 6 (rows 14-15) confirm that the increase in national and ethnic pride occurs across all non-Yoruba regions. These two effects are reflected during interviews and focus groups, as participants described how experiencing different geographic and social environments in Nigeria increased their appreciation of the country. At the same time, they describe the increased salience of their ethnic identity in their interactions with other groups. As corps members, they were visibly outsiders to the local community. They often narrated their surprise at different elements of the host culture and compared them less favorably to their own culture. Together, these findings suggest that national and ethnic pride are not mutually exclusive: Not only can they coexist, but they can also grow simultaneously.

Reflecting the increase in both national and ethnic pride, Table 4, column 5 shows that there is no statistically significant impact on respondents choice between national and ethnic identity (p=0.418). I can rule out a 0.18 s.d. increase and 0.44 s.d. decrease in a preference for national identity over ethnic identity.

# **6.4 Interethnic Attitudes and Relationships**

This section examines the impact of interethnic exposure on individuals’ attitudes towards people from different ethnic groups as well as the close relationships they form with them. I create a standardized index of attitudes towards each of the three main ethnic groups that includes the following three questions: “How close do you feel to [Hausas, Igbos, Yorubas]?” with options ranging from 1 (Not close at all) to 7 (Extremely close); “How much do you trust [Hausas, Igbos, Yorubas]?” with options ranging from 1 (Not at all) to 7 (A lot); and “Let us suppose your close relative marries a [Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba], would you be in favor of this or opposed to it happening?” with options ranging from 1 (Strongly 29
oppose) to 5 (Strongly in favor).

I do not find a statistically significant effect of interethnic exposure during NYSC on the index of attitudes on closeness to other groups, trust for other groups and support for interethnic marriage (Table 5, column 1). I also find no significant evidence that pooling non-Yoruba ethnic groups together masks any potential impacts on attitudes towards the specific ethnicity to which participants were exposed (Table 6, rows 17-18). Instead, consistent with the results on greater ethnic pride, I find that those who were exposed to other ethnic regions feel a stronger connection to fellow Yorubas (Table 5, column 3). For comparison, I can rule out an increase of 0.27 s.d. and a decrease of 0.32 s.d on attitudes towards other groups whereas the point estimate for the improvement in attitudes towards Yoruba is 0.24 s.d.

The lack of a significant impact on attitudes towards other groups (including the specific ethnic group to which an individual was exposed) may be a reflection of the fact that the conditions for intergroup contact theory (such as equal status, common goals and intergroup cooperation) were not fulfilled for the contact that occurred between NYSC participants and their host communities. For example, most participants served as teachers so their primary relationships would have been with students and their families.

Beyond attitudes, I also examine the impact of exposure on respondents’ romantic relationships. Sixty three percent of the sample has ever dated someone from a different ethnic group: 17 percent have ever dated Hausas, 42 percent have ever dated Igbos and 44 percent have ever dated someone from one of the other ethnic groups. Table 5 (column 5) reveals that those who served in a non-Yoruba region are 14 percentage points more likely to have ever dated a non-Yoruba person. In particular, the greater interethnic dating appears to be driven by the ethnicities to which a person was exposed during NYSC: those who served in a Hausa or northern minority state are more likely to date Hausas and those 30
who served in a Igbo or southern minority state are more likely to date Igbos (Table 6, rows 20-21).

In contrast to the high rate of interethnic dating, only 12 percent of respondents are married to non-Yorubas.<sup>24</sup> Four percent are married to Igbos and the remaining are married to people from other ethnic groups. No one in the sample is married to an Hausa. Overall, I find no significant evidence that exposure to another ethnic region increases the likelihood of marrying someone from a different ethnicity. However, focusing on Igbos (the main group with which interethnic marriage occurs), Table 6 (row 22) reveals that participants who served in an Igbo majority state become more likely to marry an Igbo.

These results suggest that a major channel for the increase in romantic relationships is proximity to more people from the ethnic group in their host communities, and not primarily through changes in attitudes towards the group. That is, conditional on a given level of affinity towards a group, being exposed to more of them created more opportunity for romantic relationships to develop.

# **6.5 Heterogeneous Effects**

This section examines the possibility that NYSC exposure to a non-Yoruba region has differential treatment effects by participants’ age group, gender and religious match with the majority religion in the state of service. The impressionable years hypothesis in social psychology states that core attitudes, beliefs, and values are established during late adolescence and early adulthood (between 18 and 25 years) and are less open to change afterwards (Krosnick and Alwin, 1989). As such, I compare effects on participants below and above the median age (25 years) at the end of NYSC. I find no systematic evidence that younger participants are more open to change (Table A8, column 2). This could mean

> 24By the time of the survey, sixty five percent of the sample are married.

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that since the program occurs at the critical juncture between college and employment/ independent adulthood, the common effect of being in a transition period may trump the effect of age differences.

Next, I examine heterogeneity by gender. On average, women in the sample are less open than men. They have less positive attitudes (trust, closeness and support for interethnic marriage) towards other groups and are less like likely to have dated a non-Yoruba. I examine whether the living in a different ethnic region has a differential impact on them. I do not find any systematic differences by gender (Table A8, column 4).

I also consider heterogeneous effects by religious similarity. Having the same religion as the majority of people in the host community may help bridge the gap of cross-ethnic relationships. While I observe some evidence that corps members of the dominant religion report having a more positive quality of stay, this is not accompanied by an observable differential impact of exposure on them (Table A8, column 6).

# **7 Conclusion**

The findings in this paper show that temporary physical relocation to a different ethnic region has long-lasting impacts on individuals. The results present a nuanced perspective of the effect of living in a different ethnic community: participants that serve in a different ethnic region become more cosmopolitan–they are more likely to live among other ethnic groups, be more informed about them, and have more romantic relationships with them. These effects are present without any evidence that the further exposure that comes from living in a different region leads to a change in trust or closeness to those groups relative to the exposure obtained from serving alongside a diverse cohort of peers in one’s ethnic region. Rather, the temporary interethnic migration appears to help participants overcome mental barriers by giving them an initial experience of living in an unfamiliar location. Living in a 32
different region also appears to promote interethnic relationships by providing more access to potential mates from a given ethnic group.

A unique feature of this physical relocation policy is that members of a majority group move to live as a minority in a different region. This immersion in a different group is likely responsible for the increased attachment to their ethnic group that I observe among treated participants. The social identity literature suggests that treatments that trigger individuals’ need to achieve positive group distinctiveness may result in strengthened identification with their own group even when there is no explicit conflict or competition between groups (Tajfel and Turner 1979, Tajfel 1982). These results have implications for our understanding of the process of national integration in general, as well as the specific role of physical relocation policies. A central lesson is that the specific features of intergroup exposure may matter for different national integration outcomes.

A further implication of the results is that national and ethnic identities can not only coexist but attachment to both identities can simultaneously increase in response to interventions like this one. This finding contrasts with the common view that these two identities are in opposition to each other. This perspective of competing identities is aptly captured by President Samora Machel of Mozambique who declared that “for the nation to live, the tribe must die.” Rather, my findings suggest that embracing the nation does not necessarily come at the expense of one’s ethnicity.

The results highlight the need for further research on the impact of interethnic mobility on a range of societal outcomes such as violence, public goods provision, economic growth, political stability among others. An additional area for further research is to examine the economic and social effects on locations that receive NYSC corps members, as this is an important complement to understanding the effect on those who serve.

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