Events

Abstract:

Across Western Europe and North America, immigration is a high-profile issue at the center of election campaigns. Yet, we do not know whether people are committed to their immigration preferences, and how that varies across people who support or oppose immigration. We address these questions with four original surveys from Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. One key finding is that people with pro-immigration preferences are more civically engaged to support immigration. However, we also find that people with anti-immigration preferences are more likely to support politicians on the basis of their immigration proposals. In addition, people with anti-immigration preferences are more likely to support politicians who agree with them on immigration but violate democratic norms. These differences in electoral prioritization are largely explained by ideological extremity. Our findings have numerous implications for understanding immigration divides and political engagement more generally.

The Political Science Seminar Series is convened by Desmond King. For more information on this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact politics.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.