Immigration preferences and political participation

CRIS SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR 2025-2026

TALK WITH RAHSAAN MAXWELL, Professor of Politics, New York University

Across Western Europe and North America, immigration is a high-profile divisive issue. However, we do not know whether the mass public actually cares about their immigration preferences when they participate in politics. This is an unfortunate oversight, because politics is about competing considerations. If we want to understand the political salience of immigration, we need to know how people prioritize their preferences when they participate. In this paper, we analyze immigration preferences and political participation with five original surveys from Germany, the UK and the US.

Our main result is that people who oppose immigration are more likely than people who support immigration to prioritize immigration preferences when evaluating candidates.

We account for this by highlighting their extreme ideology and dissatisfaction with the status quo. We also present evidence of greater pro-immigration participation outside of electoral politics.

Our findings have numerous implications for understanding immigration divides and political behavior.

Across Western Europe and North America, immigration is a high-profile divisive issue. However, we do not know whether the mass public actually cares about their immigration preferences when they participate in politics. This is an unfortunate oversight, because politics is about competing considerations. If we want to understand the political salience of immigration, we need to know how people prioritize their preferences when they participate. In this paper, we analyze immigration preferences and political participation with five original surveys from Germany, the UK and the US. Our main result is that people who oppose immigration are more likely than people who support immigration to prioritize immigration preferences when evaluating candidates. We account for this by highlighting their extreme ideology and dissatisfaction with the status quo. We also present evidence of greater pro-immigration participation outside of electoral politics. Our findings have numerous implications for understanding immigration divides and political behavior.

https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/rmaxwell - Thanks to register.