The dynamics of constituency representation on immigration policy in the U.S. house.
We examine how legislative representation and issue activism change as parties polarize on an issue by examining immigration politics in the U.S. House. Using an original data set of the policy positions in immigration bills from 1983 to 2014, an original coding of email newsletters from 2010 to 202...
| Published in: | Policy Studies Journal Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 480 - 499 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
May2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=185725844&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 185725844 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0190292X PSJ jtl: Policy Studies Journal issn: 0190292X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: May2025 vid: 53 iid: 2 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 185725844 10.1111/psj.12579 ppf: 480 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P size: 762KB tig: atl: The dynamics of constituency representation on immigration policy in the U.S. house. aug: au: Cayton, Adam Siemers, Lena affil: Reubin O'D. Askew Department of Government, University of West Florida, Pensacola Florida,, USA Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell Massachusetts,, USA su: Immigration policy Polarization (Social sciences) Partisanship Housing policy Electronic newsletters sug: subj: Immigration policy Polarization (Social sciences) Partisanship Housing policy Administration of Housing Programs Other Community Housing Services Electronic newsletters keyword: congress immigration polarization policy representation Congreso Inmigración Polarización Representación política 国会 政策代表 极化 移民 congress immigration polarization policy representation Congreso Inmigración Polarización Representación política 国会 政策代表 极化 移民 ab: We examine how legislative representation and issue activism change as parties polarize on an issue by examining immigration politics in the U.S. House. Using an original data set of the policy positions in immigration bills from 1983 to 2014, an original coding of email newsletters from 2010 to 2020, and existing speech data, we show that increased partisan disagreement on immigration and the sorting of immigrants into the Democratic Party changed the way lawmakers represent their districts on that issue. Larger foreign‐born populations consistently have representatives who take pro‐immigration positions, but the effect has changed from a direct effect to one mediated by partisanship. Issue attention also became asymmetrical, with Democratic lawmakers who represent more immigrants being more active on immigration policy, but no such relationship for Republicans. This suggests that for Democrats, immigration is a distributive issue driven by geographically concentrated "policy demanders" but for Republicans, it is a partisan issue that is less connected to geography. These findings have implications for who and where new policy proposals come from. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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