A Change of Mind or Change of Address? Geographic Sorting and Whites' Attitudes towards Immigration

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Immigration, Public Opinion, and Discrimination

Abstract

Do White Americans change their political attitudes when immigrants move into their neighborhoods? Evidence from public opinion research remains mixed and infers causality from cross-sectional data. Drawing from research on White flight, I propose a new way to understand the relationship between the size of local immigrant population and public opinion on immigration: geographic sorting. The sorting model posits that White Americans who are predisposed to dislike immigration leave neighborhoods with growing immigrant populations, moving to places with fewer immigrants. In the long run, Whites with liberal immigration attitudes remain in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, while those with more conservative attitudes move away. Using geocoded panel data from the General Social Survey (2008-2010), I find no evidence that immigrant influxes cause changes in individual attitudes. I then test the sorting model, and find preliminary evidence that Whites who hold more negative attitudes towards immigration are more likely to move when their neighborhoods experience an influx of immigrants, and that they tend to move to neighborhoods with smaller immigrant populations. The residential mobility of White Americans is a fundamental part of the underlying process connecting local immigrant population size to public opinion on immigration.

Author

• Ariela Schachter, Stanford University