Journal article: This article investigates the local economic cost of hosting refugees. Using administrative data in France, we show that the opening of small housing centers for refugees decreases the economic activity in hosting municipalities. We demonstrate that this downturn is related to a decline in the population by around 2% due to fewer people moving to hosting municipalities. We show that this avoidance behavior of natives results from prejudices, and is unlikely to be driven by a labor market supply shock from the arrival of refugees. We also estimate the aggregate cost of hosting refugees.