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Immigrants across the U.S. Federal Laboratory: Explaining State-Level Innovation in Immigration Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Graeme Boushey  and
Adam Luedtke
Graeme Boushey*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
Adam Luedtke
Affiliation:
Stockton College, Galloway, NJ, USA
*
Graeme Boushey, School of Public Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, SPH-II M2226, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Email: gboushey@umich.edu
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Abstract

The passage of a restrictive immigration law in Arizona in 2010 rekindled an old debate in the United States on immigration policy and the role of federalism. Despite periodic constitutional controversies, scholars of federalism and U.S. state politics have not adequately explained variation in state-level policy making on immigration. The authors explore pressures leading to state immigration policy innovation and adoption in the United States. The article evaluates factors leading to the introduction and adoption of two types of policies: those dictating the cultural and economic incorporation of immigrants and those attempting to control their flow and settlement. Factors such as fiscal federalism, ethnic contact, and ethnic threat generate incentives for states to pass such laws. The authors compiled a comprehensive data set of state immigration laws from the past decade to explain how factors commonly associated with national immigration policy development—economic conditions, rates of immigration, demographics, party control, and political institutions—influence state-level immigration policy activity.

Keywords

immigrationimmigrantsfederalismethnic politics

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 390 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2011

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