Elites, Immigration Policy, and the Politics of Division

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In its scale and challenge to integration, immigration is transforming politics in advanced democracies. Extant research has studied the stances of voters and political parties on immigration and migrant integration. Yet, we know much less about political elites’ views on these issues, and why they frame them the way they do. Opening the black box of elites’ views is important because their language and policy decisions are fundamental to immigration policy-making and migrants’ everyday experiences. Data that allow systematic analysis of elites’ immigration views is of great importance.

Sub Unit

• Division 52: Migration & Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• Adapting Points Test to Contemporary Notions of Skill: Elite Policy Design - Anna Katherine Boucher, University of Sydney

• Xenophobia & Racial Resentment Toward Early COVID-19 Policy Responses - Sara Wallace Goodman, University of California, Irvine; Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University; Shana Kushner Gadarian, Syracuse University

• How Political Elites Frame the Politics of Migration: The U.S. Case - Gerda Hooijer, University College London; Desmond King, University of Oxford

• Polarization Traps in the Struggle for Muslim Inclusion - Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University; Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, University of Bergen

Chair

• Desmond King University of Oxford

Discussant

• James F. Hollifield Southern Methodist University