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31. Are Immigrants a Threat? Most Americans Don’t Think So, but Those Receptive to the “Threat” Narrative Are Predictably More Anti-immigrant

Author:
PRRI Staff
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
PRRI: Public Religion Research Institute
Abstract:
Joe Biden campaigned on a commitment to reverse many of the Trump administration’s strictest anti-immigration policies. Though many of these policies have either been reversed or halted — including the travel ban for people from various countries, the ban on temporary work visas, and the expansion of the public charge rule, among others —some remain in place.[1] One such policy is a public health rule known as Title 42, which allows for the immediate expulsion of migrants at the border in order to control the spread of COVID-19. The rule was set to be lifted in late December, but its suspension was delayed by the Supreme Court owing to public backlash and fears that illegal border crossings would increase significantly.[2] Meanwhile, independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis have proposed legislation that would both extend Title 42 and provide a pathway to citizenship for two million people who were illegally brought to the United States as children and are now classified as “Dreamers.” The proposal also includes new resources to speed the processing of asylum seekers.[3] As politicians struggle with how to address immigration issues, Americans’ views on immigration have become increasingly polarized, with Republicans becoming significantly more anti-immigrant in their attitudes over the past few years. Republicans have continually attacked the Biden administration’s handling of immigration, claiming that his policies will increase the flow of immigrants over the southern border and calling for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to resign. These criticisms are expected to increase now that Republicans have regained control of the House of Representatives.[4] Though the Trump-era narrative still resonates among certain portions of the American public, this report reveals that majorities of Americans do not view immigrants as a threat. But people who are more likely to think of immigrants as a threat — including those who most trust conservative media sources and Fox News — they are considerably more anti-immigrant and less supportive of open immigration policies.
Topic:
Politics, Immigration, Border Control, and Nativism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

32. The Relationship between COVID-19 Entry Restrictions and Immigration

Author:
Youngook Jang and Dong-Hee Joe
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the relationship between COVID-19 entry restrictions and dependence on immigrants. In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide implemented international travel restrictions to reduce the entry of infected individuals. These measures included entry and exit bans, mandatory quarantine of travelers, and vaccination requirements, significantly altering global mobility patterns. Despite their proven effectiveness, entry restrictions also impose substantial economic costs, particularly evident in the form of reduced immigration and subsequent labor shortages in sectors reliant on immigrant labor. We introduce a theoretical framework to shed light on the factors influencing the determination of entry restrictions, encompassing both health and economic considerations. Empirical analyses reveal that countries heavily dependent on foreign labor are inclined to adopt less stringent border controls, balancing the economic costs associated with reduced immigrant workforce. Moreover, we argue that the strength of entry restrictions is determined by a government’s capacity to manage infection waves through means other than entry bans. Finally, we offer policy implications based on our research, on how to control the spread of infectious diseases while minimizing the costs imposed by reducing immigration and the cost imposed on the immigrants themselves.
Topic:
Immigration, Border Control, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

33. What Role Can Immigration Play in Addressing Current and Future Labor Shortages?

Author:
Kate Hooper
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Labor shortages are a pressing concern for policymakers and employers alike in many countries around the world. As pandemic-era economic disruptions have collided with longer-running workforce trends, these shortages have become more acute but also hard to predict. Immigration can play an important role in addressing labor shortages—and in some economies and sectors, already does. But there is a robust debate about the extent to which countries should rely on admitting immigrants to address these shortages, and how this should be balanced against other, more far-reaching policy interventions in education and training, labor, and social policy that would boost the labor market participation of resident native- and foreign-born workers. This policy brief examines how immigration can help address labor shortages, the trade-offs that governments must navigate, and current and potential approaches to factoring labor shortages into economic immigration policies. The brief is part of a series of policy analyses and blueprints being generated under MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, which is exploring the role that immigration can play in addressing workforce needs and skills gaps in rapidly evolving labor markets.
Topic:
Education, Immigration, Employment, Vocational Training, COVID-19, Recruitment, and Labor Market
Political Geography:
Global Focus

34. Rise From the Fall, Unmasking the Vietnamese-American Identity: A Conversation with Author Lan Cao

Author:
Lan Cao and Naja Pham Lockwood
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
This Asia in Action Speaker Series event revolves around the life and literary journey of Lan Cao, a Vietnamese American writer. It begins with her early life in Vietnam and her migration to America in 1975, as depicted in her novel Monkey Bridge, emphasizing themes of exile, loss, and hope. It then delves into the significance of authentic Vietnamese storytelling through her work The Lotus and the Storm, offering a unique perspective on the Vietnam War. The discussion also touches on Vietnam's economic transition with Doi Moi policies and its reflection in Three Seasons, while exploring its impact on Lan Cao's identity as a Vietnamese American and refugee. Finally, her latest book, Family of Six Tones: Refugee Mother and American Daughter, is introduced, along with her ongoing literary journey and future projects.
Topic:
Immigration, Culture, Vietnam War, Identity, and Storytelling
Political Geography:
Vietnam, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States of America

35. Majority Minority: How do societies respond to great demographic change?

Author:
Justin Gest
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Justin Gest is an Associate Professor of Policy and Government at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He is the author of six books and a variety of peer-reviewed articles on immigration and the politics of demographic change. He co-edits the Oxford University Press book series, “Oxford Studies in Migration and Citizenship” and has provided reporting or commentary for ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, NPR, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Vox, and The Washington Post. In 2014 and 2020, Professor Gest received Harvard University’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize and George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award, respectively each university’s highest award for faculty teaching. In 2013, he received the Star Family Prize for Student Advising, Harvard’s highest award for student advising. In 2007, he co-founded the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Topic:
Demographics, Immigration, Minorities, and Society
Political Geography:
Global Focus

36. Terrorism and Immigration; A Risk Analysis, 1975–2022

Author:
Alex Nowrasteh
Publication Date:
08-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Terrorism is a hazard to human life and material prosperity that should be addressed in a sensible manner whereby the benefits of actions taken to contain it outweigh the costs. A total of 219 foreign-born terrorists were responsible for 3,046 murders on U.S. soil from 1975 through the end of 2022. The chance of a person perishing in a terrorist attack committed by a foreigner on U.S. soil over the 48-year period studied here is 1 in 4.3 million per year. The hazard posed by foreigners who entered on different visa categories varies considerably. For instance, the annual chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack by a refugee is about 1 in 3.3 billion, while the annual chance of being murdered in an attack committed by an illegal immigrant is zero. Looking at this spectrum of risk, any government response to terrorism must consider the wide range of hazards posed by foreign-born terrorists who entered under various visa categories. There were 219 foreign-born terrorists who planned, attempted, or carried out attacks on U.S. soil from 1975 through 2022. Of those, 67 percent were Islamists, 16 percent were foreign nationalists, 6 percent were right-wing extremists, 5 percent were non-Islamic religious terrorists, 4 percent were left-wing extremists, and the rest were separatists, adherents of other or unknown ideologies, or targeted worshippers of specific religions.
Topic:
Security, Terrorism, Immigration, and Cost-Benefit Analysis
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

37. The Impact of Immigration on the Employment Dynamics of European Regions*

Author:
Anthony Edo and Cem Özgüzel
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
This paper provides the first evidence on the regional impact of immigration on native employment in a cross-country framework. We show that the rise in the share of immigrants across European regions over the 2010-2019 period had a modest impact on the employment-to-population rate of natives. However, the effects are highly uneven across regions and workers, and over time. First, the short-run estimates show adverse employment effects in response to immigration, while these effects disappear in the longer run. Second, low-educated native workers experience employment losses due to immigration, whereas high-educated ones are more likely to experience employment gains. Third, the presence of institutions that provide employment protection and high coverage of collective wage agreements exert a protective effect on native employment. Finally, economically dynamic regions can better absorb immigrant workers, resulting in little or no effect on the native workforce.
Topic:
Immigration, Employment, and Labor Cost
Political Geography:
Europe

38. Border Apprehensions and Federal Sentencing of Hispanic Citizens in the United States

Author:
Simone Bertolia, Morgan Laouenan, and Jerome Valette
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
We provide evidence that Hispanic citizens receive significantly longer sentences than non-Hispanic citizens in the Federal Criminal Justice System in the United States when a higher number of illegal aliens are apprehended along the southwest border. Apprehensions can increase the salience of Hispanic ethnic identity, which is associated with persistent negative stereotypes, and can also deteriorate attitudes toward Hispanics. We rule out concerns that apprehensions might convey legally relevant information to judges. Thus, we provide direct evidence for time-varying discrimination toward Hispanic defendants. Our estimated effect is only at play for defendants without a heavy previous criminal record.
Topic:
Immigration, Ethnicity, Discrimination, Identity, Attitudes, and Salience
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

39. Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization: Evidence from the Last 60 Years

Author:
Frédéric Docquier, Lucas Guichard, Stefano Iandolo, Hillel Rapoport, Riccardo Turati, and Gonzague Vannoorenberghe
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
We analyze the long-run evolution of populism and explore the role of globalization in shaping such evolution. We use an imbalanced panel of 628 national elections in 55 countries over 60 years. A rst novelty is our reliance on both standard (e.g., the "volume margin", or vote share of populist parties) and new (e.g., the "mean margin", a continuous vote-weighted average of populism scores of all parties) measures of the extent of populism. We show that levels of populism in the world have strongly fluctuated since the 1960s, peaking after each major economic crisis and reaching an all-time high – especially for right-wing populism in Europe – after the great recession of 2007-10. The second novelty is that when we investigate the "global" determinants of populism, we look at trade and immigration jointly and consider their size as well as their skill-structure. Using OLS, PPML and IV regressions, our results consistently suggest that populism responds to globalization shocks in a way which is closely linked to the skill structure of these shocks. Imports of low-skill labor intensive goods increase both total and right-wing populism at the volume and mean margins, and more so in times of de-industrialization and of internet expansion. Low-skill immigration, on the other hand, tends to induce a transfer of votes from left-wing to right-wing populist parties, apparently without aecting the total. Finally, imports of high-skill labor intensive goods, as well as high-skill immigration, tend to reduce the volume of populism.
Topic:
Globalization, Immigration, Elections, Populism, and Trade
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40. Cultural Transmission and Political Attitudes: Explaining Differences between Natives and Immigrants in Western Europe

Author:
Jérôme Gonnot and Federica lo Polito
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
This paper uses data on individual political opinions from the European Social Survey to study the role of horizontal cultural transmission on immigrants' political assimilation in Western Europe. We analyze five key political issues: redistribution, gay rights, EU integration, immigration policy and trust in political institutions. Controlling for individual socio-economic characteristics, we document that immigrants show identical support for redistribution as natives, display more conservative attitudes towards gay rights and more liberal views on the other three issues. These differences widen with the cultural and religious distance between immigrants' background and Western European norms, and decrease with the number of years since migration. Among immigrants that have spent at least 10 years in their host country, attitudes towards migration policy catch up with those of natives and the migrant-to-native gap on political trust is reduced by 80\%. In contrast, differences on EU integration and gay rights remain stable while immigrants' views on redistribution becomes relatively more conservative. These attitude-specific patterns are also salient when studying political preferences at the regional and sub-regional level. Our results strongly point towards the transmission of cultural values from natives to immigrants on matters of immigration policy and political trust, whereas attitudes towards redistribution seem immune to cultural influences at destination.
Topic:
Immigration, Culture, European Union, Assimilation, and Political Attitudes
Political Geography:
Europe and Western Europe