Climate change will drive migration both within and across nations' borders, requiring some temporary and permanent resettlement. Despite the relative novelty of – and growing need for – climate-driven migration, it is unknown whether or how support for climate refugees' plight differs to other refugees. We examine attitudes of people living in the United States (N = 1765) towards refugee policy that experimentally differs in three respects: the type of refugees (international climate refugees, internal climate refugees, or refugees of war), the length of their stay (permanent or temporary), and their numbers (capped or increasing annually). While specific discussion about climate refugee policy cites fears of ‘opening the floodgates’, we found no evidence that people were reluctant to support climate refugees when their numbers were going to increase each year compared to when they would remain capped. Instead, ratings did not depend on refugee numbers or refugee permanence. None of these factors interacted, indicating that resistance to migration is contingent only on the group: Proposals to support international climate refugees were supported less than proposals to support internal climate refugees or refugees of war. Responses to a question asking which countries participants expected international climate refugees to relocate from suggests a wide variety of expected origins, and these geographic origins may shape ratings of support and perceived threat to the economy and culture if refugees resettle in the United States. Overall, our findings highlight the greater support and sympathy afforded to groups already living in the United States.

气候变化将推动各国境内和跨国界的移民，需要一些临时和永久的重新安置。尽管气候驱动的移民相对新颖且需求不断增长，但对气候难民困境的支持是否或如何不同于其他难民尚不清楚。我们考察了居住在美国的人们的态度（N = 1765) 的难民政策在三个方面在实验上有所不同：难民的类型（国际气候难民、国内气候难民或战争难民）、他们的逗留时间（永久或临时）以及他们的人数（上限或增加）每年）。虽然关于气候难民政策的具体讨论引用了对“打开闸门”的担忧，但我们没有发现任何证据表明人们不愿意支持气候难民，因为他们的人数每年都会增加，而他们会保持上限。相反，评级不取决于难民人数或难民的持久性。这些因素都没有相互作用，表明对移民的抵抗只是偶然的关于小组：支持国际气候难民的提案得到的支持少于支持内部气候难民或战争难民的提案。回答询问参与者预计国际气候难民将从哪些国家重新安置的问题表明，预期的来源多种多样，如果难民在美国重新安置，这些地理来源可能会影响支持评级以及对经济和文化的感知威胁。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了对已经生活在美国的群体的更大支持和同情。