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1. Immigration policy reform has become a
topic of almost daily national debate. Businesses,
consumers, employers, labor unions, law
enforcement officers, higher education officials,
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and not to mention immigrants themselves, all have
something at stake in immigration policy reform. All
of the recent discussion of immigration policy at the
national level makes it easy to forget that significant
changes have already been made in immigration
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policy at the state level, many of which will likely
affect the policy discourse and the nature of any
policy changes at the national level. As the nation
considers how to move forward with immigration
policy reform, we should first understand how we got
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to this point. What has shaped immigration policy
changes at the state level in the last decade?
2. Using an analysis of all 50 states, James
Monogan, a political scientist at the University of
Georgia, finds that immigration policy is affected
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most by legislative professionalism, electoral
ideology, state wealth, and change in the foreign-
born population. Specifically, the more professional
a legislature is, the more likely they are to enact
welcoming laws toward immigrants, which Monogan
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suggests is likely because career politicians in these
legislatures are more concerned with their future
electoral prospects than those in less professional
legislatures. In other words, state legislators are
mindful of how opponents could garner votes in the
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next election and they consider this when voting
on immigration policy. Not surprisingly, states with
a more liberal electorate are more likely to take a
welcoming stance on immigration policy, suggesting
that policy makers are somewhat responsive to
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public opinion. Economics and demographics also
play a role, as states with a higher per capita gross
state product tend to pass more welcoming laws
towards immigrants while states experiencing an
increase in the foreign-born population tend to pass
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policies that are more hostile towards immigrants.
3. These results are quite interesting as they
suggest that immigration policy is a function of
the professional nature of a state’s legislature,
public opinion in the state, overall state economic
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conditions, and state demographics. Monogan’s
results offer a clear picture of how states have
chosen to make changes to immigration policy over
the last decade in the face of federal inaction.
(Source: Jennifer Connolly, in Journal of Public Policy, May 20th, 2013,
adapted)