Migration is thought to cause “sons of the soil” conflict, particularly if migrants and locals compete economically. Using data from India, we investigate the causal effect of domestic migration on riots by instrumenting for migration using weather shocks in migrants’ places of origin. We find a direct effect of migration on riots, but do not find that this effect is exacerbated by economic competition. We instead argue and find evidence that migration is less likely to cause rioting where the host population is politically-aligned with the central government. Politically privileged host populations can pursue less costly means to appease nativists and reduce migration. Without these political resources, hosts resort to violence. Beyond furthering the literature on sons of the soil violence, our findings detail a political mechanism linking natural disasters to violence, and demonstrate a widely-applicable strategy for recovering the causal effect of migration on violence.