How does femonationalism, defined as the selective invocation of gender equality to promote exclusionary anti-immigrant policies, affect citizens? While increasingly common across Western democracies, its impact on citizens’ preferences remains underexplored. This paper provides evidence from a preregistered survey experiment with 3,118 U.S. citizens, showing that femonationalist rhetoric can enhance opposition to pluralist policies in defense of progressive gender achievements. The effect is conditional on citizens’ prior immigration attitudes: anti-immigration individuals liberalize their gender views, while pro-immigration individuals demand stricter integration policies. The findings suggest that citizens are not consistent in their ideological preferences, especially when political elites frame liberal values as conflicting.

In 2003, Norway implemented an ‘Introduction Programme’ that aimed to increase labour market inclusion among newly arrived immigrants. Its main objectives were to facilitate free courses in Norwegian language training and social studies, and education or on-the-job training. The participants were given an allowance to attend the programme. This paper uses administrative register data to evaluate the effect of the Norwegian introduction programme on female immigrants’ employment and earnings prospects. The sample consists of female immigrants from Asia or Africa who immigrated to Norway 18 months before or after the implementation of the introduction programme. The study measures their probability of being employed and their mean earnings 4–6 and 7–9 years after immigration. The results show that the Norwegian introduction programme had a small but significant effect on women’s employment, but not on their earnings. This article suggests that the small effect of the programme on employment and non-effect on earnings may imply a displacement effect rather than an improvement in language skills and labour market skills.