How Immigrant Experience Shapes Congressional Decisionmaking

• In Event: Minority Representation and Reaction

Abstract

How does personal experience with immigration affect voting patterns on immigration bills in Congress? We use micro-level ancestry data from the census to identify the familial immigration history of members of Congress, observing countries of birth for members, their parents, and their grandparents. We examine the relationship between immigrant background and roll call voting on a series of major immigration and naturalization bills from the 1910s through the 1960s. We find that family immigration history predicts an increased probability of casting pro-immigration votes. These results persist when controlling for district-level foreign born population and when comparing roll call vote choices by MCs from districts that narrowly elected candidates with recent immigrant backgrounds to districts that narrowly failed to elect such candidates. Our findings highlight the role of personal experience and background in legislative position-taking and help illuminate the legislative dynamics of present-day immigration policy.

Authors

• Benjamin Schneer, Harvard University

• Maxwell B. Palmer, Boston University

• James Feigenbaum, Boston University