American Immigration Attitudes and Nimbyism
Do Immigration Preferences Vary by Spatial Scale
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12378725 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jieun Lee (0000-0002-7969-9912, University of California, corresponding author), Harry G Muttram (0009-0001-4241-3204, University of California) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 320-328 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | PS Political Science & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-0965 • E-ISSN: 1537-5935 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1049096525101467 |
| OpenAlex | W4414793256 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 28 |
In recent years, prominent Republican elites have instituted statewide migrant transportation programs in which asylum-seeking migrants are “bused” to liberal cities across the country. These programs are often justified by invoking NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard), suggesting that when people must consider the effects of immigration policy in terms of their community, their attitudes toward immigrants will vary. Despite this, extant scholarship has yet to document the extent to which American immigration preferences vary by spatial scale and gives no expectation about how important any variation is relative to other determinants of immigration attitudes. Findings from a conjoint experiment reveal that Americans, on average, oppose immigrants proposed to move into their neighborhoods, but spatial scale does not alter considerations at the national, state, or city level. The relative importance of this NIMBY effect, however, is modest compared to a host of other individual-level characteristics of an immigrant. Moreover, despite elite claims of “liberal hypocrisy” in immigration, we find no evidence that the NIMBY effect varies by partisanship. Both Democrats and Republicans exhibit modest preferences against immigrants expected to move to their neighborhoods
Elite · Extant taxon · Immigration · Immigration policy · Scale (ratio · Scholarship · Variation (astronomy · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social and Intergroup Psychology
Understanding and Overcoming the Nimby Syndrome
Status quo bias in decision making
Understanding the Nimby and Lulu Phenomena
Residential Integration on the New Frontier
Political Threat and Immigration
Immigration and the Imagined Community in Europe and the United States
Local Exposure Effect of the 2018 South Korea Refugee Crisis
Public Opinion Toward Immigration Reform
Where Self-Interest Trumps Ideology
Ordering Effects versus Cognitive Burden
Exposure to Immigration and Admission Preferences
Measuring Subgroup Preferences in Conjoint Experiments
The Nimby problem
Chinese Foreign Real Estate Investment and Local Voting in US Presidential Elections
The Impact of Economic and Cultural Cues on Support for Immigration in Canada and the United States
Public Attitudes Toward Immigration
The Hidden American Immigration Consensus
Measuring party support
Local economic benefits increase positivity toward foreigners
Between Fixity and Motion
Sources of recency effects in free recall
Does Exposure to the Refugee Crisis Make Natives More Hostile
New Destinations and the Changing Geography of Immigrant Incorporation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |