When Political Rhetoric Threatens Migrant Labor Market Integration

• In Event: The Effects of Framing, Media, and Rhetoric on Immigration Attitudes

Abstract

My dissertation investigates how political rhetoric impacts a migrant’s ability to integrate into a host country’s labor market. I hypothesize that as the salience of anti-migrant political rhetoric increases, discriminatory behavior towards migrants also increases, because the rhetoric signals a shift in norms to be more accepting of these practices. Discrimination in the labor market would make it more difficult for migrants to find or maintain work. I use Social Dominance Theory (SDT) to explain how political rhetoric is employed to reinforce social hierarchies. I combine large-N data from the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the European Values Survey (EVS). I compile proxies for the dependent variable labor market integration and independent variable political rhetoric, and control for multicultural policies using the Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), number of immigrants, and GDP per capita. I conduct a pooled-panel study looking at fixed effects by country. Because individuals are nested within countries, I perform a multilevel hierarchical analysis using EVS for proxy variables that indicate respondents’ discrimination attitudes toward immigrants.

Author

• Jennifer J Shaneberger, University of Tennessee