What drives U.S. immigration policy? Evidence from congressional roll call votes

Immigration is today one of the most hotly debated policy issues in the United States. Despite marked divergence of opinion even within political parties, several important reforms have been introduced in the post 1965 era. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a systematic analysis of the drivers of the voting behavior of US representatives on immigration policy in the period 1970–2006, and in particular to assess the role of economic factors at the district level. Our findings suggest that representatives from more skilled labor abundant districts are more likely to support an open immigration policy towards the unskilled, whereas the opposite is true for representatives from more unskilled labor abundant districts. This evidence is robust to the introduction of an array of additional economic and non-economic characteristics of the districts, and suggests that a simple factor analysis model can go a long way in explaining voting on immigration policy.

Research highlights
► We study the behaviour of US congressmen on immigration policy making.
► We focus on the role of economic drivers at the district level.
► Congressmen from skilled abundant districts support the inflow of unskilled labor.
► Non economic drivers play a role, but labor market features are robust predictors.