Explaining Crimmigration: The Impact of State Politics and Race/Ethnicity on the Change of Immigration Control

• In Event: Islamophobia, Immigration, and Social Control

Abstract

While there is a veritable bulk of research that well establish the protective or null impact of new immigration on crime in the United States, public misconceptions of immigrant criminality have, in a large part, contributed to punitive policies controlling immigrants. There is, however, little research concerning the explanation of crimmigration; that is, less is known regarding why and how the punitive turn to immigration control has been chosen and developed in the state level. Drawing upon explanatory frameworks derived from sociology of punishment and politics, and using state-level data sources from 1990 to 2010, this paper examines whether and how state politics and racial/ethnic factors influence state punitiveness against immigration over time. Employing various longitudinal data analytical techniques, such as fixed effect modeling and group-based modeling, this paper reveals that state dominant political partisanship and racial/ethnic relations are significantly related to states’ adoption of punitive immigration control over the period of new immigration. Limitations in the present study and future directions in the research of accounting for crimmigration will be discussed in conclusion.

Author

• Jize Jiang, University of Illinois at Chicago