Class
Article
College
Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
Department
Economics and Finance Department
Faculty Mentor
Lucas Rentschler
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
This paper analyses immigrants’ views on immigration, contributing to the behavioral literature on immigration. In particular, it explores the role of statistical discrimination as a cause of possible opposition to immigration in the absence of stringent immigration policies and large volumes of undocumented immigration. We test this hypothesis using US data from the 7th wave of the World Value Survey, finding that successful immigrants in the US (i.e. those who are in the top quintile of the socio-economic classification), who may benefit the most from being perceived as unrelated to unskilled undocumented immigrants, have negative views about immigration, especially with respect to its contribution to unemployment, crime, and the risk of a terrorist attack. This effect does not arise in the case of countries that apply stricter controls than the US on immigration, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, or do not attract as large volumes of undocumented immigrants. We interpret these results as evidence that immigrants’ attitudes towards other immigrants respond to the lack of a selective immigration policy: namely if successful immigrants run the risk of being perceived as related to undocumented or uncontrolled immigration, they respond by embracing an immigrants’ anti-immigration view.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-12-2023 10:30 AM
End Date
4-12-2023 11:30 AM
Included in
Do Immigrants' Ever Oppose Immigration?
Logan, UT
This paper analyses immigrants’ views on immigration, contributing to the behavioral literature on immigration. In particular, it explores the role of statistical discrimination as a cause of possible opposition to immigration in the absence of stringent immigration policies and large volumes of undocumented immigration. We test this hypothesis using US data from the 7th wave of the World Value Survey, finding that successful immigrants in the US (i.e. those who are in the top quintile of the socio-economic classification), who may benefit the most from being perceived as unrelated to unskilled undocumented immigrants, have negative views about immigration, especially with respect to its contribution to unemployment, crime, and the risk of a terrorist attack. This effect does not arise in the case of countries that apply stricter controls than the US on immigration, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, or do not attract as large volumes of undocumented immigrants. We interpret these results as evidence that immigrants’ attitudes towards other immigrants respond to the lack of a selective immigration policy: namely if successful immigrants run the risk of being perceived as related to undocumented or uncontrolled immigration, they respond by embracing an immigrants’ anti-immigration view.