The Asymmetric Polarization of Immigration Opinion in the United States

Bibliographic Data

ID6370840
AuthorsTrent Ollerenshaw (0000-0002-3486-0864, Department of Political Science, Duke University PhD Candidate, , Durham, NC, US), A Jardina (0000-0002-0410-9535, University of Virginia)
Year2023
Volume87
Issue4
Pages1038-1053
Publication date2023-12-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Opinion Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-362X • E-ISSN: 1537-5331
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/poq/nfad048
OpenAlexW4389608386
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited24

In this paper, we analyze trends in Americans’ immigration attitudes and policy preferences nationally and across partisan and racial/ethnic groups. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Democrats and Republicans shared similarly negative attitudes toward immigrants and high levels of support for restrictionist immigration policies. Beginning in the 2010s and continuing through the early 2020s, however, Democrats’ aggregate immigration opinions liberalized considerably. We observed increasingly liberal immigration preferences among Democrats of all racial and ethnic backgrounds after 2016, but this trend was especially pronounced among white Democrats. Among Republicans, opinion on immigration remained mostly stable over this period, although in some cases it became more conservative (e.g., border security) and more liberal on others (e.g., amnesty). The marked liberalization in immigration opinion among Democrats has left partisans more divided on immigration than at any point since national surveys began consistently measuring immigration opinion in the late twentieth century

Amnesty · Demographic economics · Economics · Ethnic group · Immigration · Immigration law · Immigration policy · Polarization (electrochemistry · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Law

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