Conflict and Consensus on American Public Opinion on Illegal Immigration

Abstract

The literature on public attitudes toward immigration devotes more attention to mass preferences over the admission and treatment of legal immigrants than to explaining attitudes toward illegal immigration. We theorize both similarity and difference in the nature and underpinnings of public opinion across domains. Two recent surveys, each employing a novel variant of conjoint analysis, help us test these expectations. We underline "categorical" response -that is, the rejection or acceptance of all profiles regardless of traits -on the pathway issue, both extensive in absolute terms (roughly 40% of respondents) and relative to assessments on legal admissions. This tendency also explains the entirety of the favorability gap between legal and illegal profiles assessed. On the other hand, those who do not express categorical responses emphasize the importance of both ethnocultural and human capital-related considerations, and the relative weight of these considerations is stable both regardless of the legality condition and across numerous political predispositions.

The Hidden American Immigration Consensus: A Conjoint Analysis of Attitudes toward Immigrants

“…The similarities between these results and those of Wright, Levy, and Citrin () further suggest that the core results detailed below are likely to be robust to the specific framing of the survey task.…”

“…It also encourages scholars to think not in binary terms about hypotheses that are falsified but about relative levels of support for different claims. Here, we have focused on perceptions about immigrants, and Wright, Levy, and Citrin () provide a valuable extension by considering the attributes that make native‐born citizens more or less likely to support deporting unauthorized immigrants. But as discussed in Hainmueller, Hopkins, and Yamamoto (), the technique's applicability is likely to be substantially wider.…”

“…Future work might consider randomizing the format of the outcome variable so as to evaluate its effects. For an example of a conjoint design using a different response format, see Wright, Levy, and Citrin ().…”

Ideology and the Narrative of Climate Skepticism

“…But neither this political challenge nor free market ideology completely explains the influence of the climate-skeptical agenda on public opinion. Many Americans who express skepticism about climate change science online and in social media also reject some free market ideas, such as the free flow of labor across borders (Wright et al 2014).…”

Mass Opinion and Immigration Policy in the United States: Re-Assessing Clientelist and Elitist Perspectives

“…Our own study is consistent with their finding that "policy frames" hold persuasive potential, but what they see as frames strike us as substantive policy alternatives. When it comes to illegal-immigration policy, the alternatives capable of mustering public support and assuaging a large minority that opposes large-scale reform on rigid moralistic grounds 26 do not go far enough to satisfy key interest groups. In sum, the nuanced portrait of public opinion of immigration presented here indicates that client politics is not unchallenged and that democratic responsiveness is part of the policy-making process here and, arguably, in other domains of policy as well.…”