MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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October 30, 2020

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Spotlight
Indian Immigrants in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/indian-immigrants-united-states-2019
There are 2.7 million Indian immigrants in the United States, making them the second-largest immigrant group after Mexicans. This number has increased dramatically in recent years, growing 13-fold between 1980 and 2019. This article provides an overview of this population, which is more highly educated, more likely to work in management positions, and higher-earning than the U.S. born and overall immigrant population.

U.S. Policy Beat
Trump's Promise of Millions of Deportations Is Yet to Be Fulfilled
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-deportations-unfinished-mission
Before entering office, President Donald Trump promised to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants. Yet despite his general successes in creating a more restrictive and punitive immigration system, this goal has eluded his administration. So-called "sanctuary" policies implemented by state and local governments to limit their cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been a key reason why arrests and removals have not reached earlier peaks.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

How do voters think about immigration? It is an important question, and one that seems particularly apt ahead of next week's U.S. national elections.

Donald Trump, of course, built his successful 2016 campaign in large part around the promise to remake the U.S. immigration system to be more restrictive. Political science research suggests this focus was crucial in his ability to attract certain kinds of voters. A study published in Public Opinion Quarterly found that among White voters who did not vote Republican in 2012 but switched to Trump in 2016, attitudes on race and immigration were more important than economic factors. This cut against conventional explanations that native-born voters' concerns about immigration are related to fears about competition for jobs. Other research has found that Trump was propelled by these voters' concerns about losing their status as a dominant group and anxieties about residing in areas with growing numbers of Latino residents.

All the more intriguing, then, that the issue has been all but absent from the current election. In 2016, immigration was the fourth most mentioned issue in the Trump campaign's television ads, according to The Wall Street Journal. This year, it barely cracked the top ten. Meanwhile Biden, who is ahead in virtually all national polls and leading in several swing states, has hardly raised the issue at all.

The explanation may come down to the notion of salience, which describes why voters believe some issues to be more important than others. While anxieties about race, immigration, and demographic change have been a longstanding undercurrent of U.S. politics, they were brought to the fore in 2016 much more than in 2020. It seems reasonable to assume that the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp economic and labor market dislocations it caused have been more pressing concerns for many people.

Significant research from Europe demonstrates the difference between an individual voter's opinion on a given policy and the importance he or she attaches to that issue in relation to others. Research from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany found that voting behavior differed in response to changes in immigration policy that increase "salience and visibility of the issue." Prominent media coverage also plays a part in this process, by highlighting particular "focus events" and raising the profile of particular individuals.

Most scholarship on how immigration affects political attitudes has focused on North America and Western Europe, but there has been some research elsewhere, including in newer democracies. In the Dominican Republic, voters in areas with higher concentrations of Haitian immigrants were driven by notions of political and cultural identity and competition to disproportionately support right-wing, anti-immigration politicians. Analysis of data from 11 sub-Saharan African countries, meanwhile, found that opposition to immigration was higher around the time of the election and in countries that were more democratic and had dominant party systems.

Voters' reactions to immigration, then, are malleable. They can be shaped by a range of factors, including their own perceptions of demographic change and how politicians seize on those perceptions. In other words, public attitudes towards immigration may not always drive elections. But under the right circumstances, the issue can be decisive.

Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

Rethinking the U.S.-Mexico Border Immigration Enforcement System: A Policy Road Map
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/rethinking-us-mexico-border-immigration-enforcement
By Doris Meissner

Navigating the Future of Work: The Role of Immigrant-Origin Workers in the Changing U.S. Economy
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/future-work-immigrant-origin-workers-us-economy
By Julia Gelatt, Jeanne Batalova, and Randy Capps


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HAVE YOU READ

The U.S. Presidential Campaign Cements Political Parties' Deepening Schism on Immigration
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/us-presidential-campaign-cements-political-parties-deepening-schism-immigration

Does Migration Increase Happiness? It Depends
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/does-migration-increase-happiness-it-depends

The Philippines: Beyond Labor Migration, Toward Development and (Possibly) Return
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/philippines-beyond-labor-migration-toward-development-and-possibly-return


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MEDIA CORNER

The latest episode of MPI's Moving Beyond Pandemic podcast looks at how COVID-19 has impacted mobility around the world.
www.migrationpolicymovingbeyondpandemic.podbean.com/e/the-covid-19-shock-to-the-system-of-human-mobility-and-the-international-response/

Haven: The Mediterranean Crisis and Human Security, edited by John Morrissey, offers a new perspective on asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean.
www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/haven-the-mediterranean-crisis-and-human-security-9781788115476.html

Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy, by Cristina Beltrán, looks at the role Mexican and Latin American immigrants play in U.S. political rhetoric. www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cruelty-as-citizenship

Grace Aneiza Ali's Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora, traces the migration narratives of 15 women from the 1950s to today.
www.openbookpublishers.com/product/1208

The story of a woman caught up in a political firestorm is told in Magda Montiel Davis's Kissing Fidel: A Memoir of Cuban American Terrorism in the United States.
www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/9781609387266/kissing-fidel

Prominent writers from Mexico weigh in on U.S. immigration policy in Let's Talk About Your Wall: Mexican Writers Respond to the Immigration Crisis, edited by Carmen Boullosa and Alberto Quintero.
thenewpress.com/books/lets-talk-about-your-wall

Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation, edited by Eithne Luibhéid and Karma R. Chávez, highlights the situation of LGBTQ migrants and communities.
www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/75pcg4gz9780252043314.html


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