Federal Policies, National Politics, and Local Understanding of Immigrants
Federal Policies, National Politics, and Local Understanding of Immigrants
This chapter investigates the factors that explain municipal inaction, accommodation, and restriction in response to immigrants. Local capacity and immigrant visibility influence whether local governments take action to respond to immigrants. State and federal policies and national political rhetoric shape officials’ framing of immigrants, thereby influencing how municipalities respond. Towns where positive frames of immigrants are accessible and resonant–especially places exposed to accommodating state and federal policies–are more likely to accommodate, while towns where negative frames of immigrants are more prevalent–including places with a greater proportion of Republican voters–are less likely to accommodate and more likely to restrict. Some have argued that ethnic demographic change precipitates restrictive responses, but this chapter demonstrates that factors associated with ethnic threat do not drive municipal responses.
Keywords: immigrant, local government, municipal, framing, Republican, federal, ethnic threat
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
