Immigrant Franchise and Immigration Policy: Evidence from the Progressive Era

65 Pages Posted: 8 May 2020

See all articles by Costanza Biavaschi

Costanza Biavaschi

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Giovanni Facchini

University of Nottingham

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 2020

Abstract

What is the role played by immigrant groups in shaping migration policy in the destination country? We address this question exploiting cross-state variation in U.S. citizens' access to the franchise, due to the presence of residency requirements. First we document that naturalized immigrants were more geographically mobile than natives. Second, congressmen representing districts with large numbers of naturalized U.S. citizens were more likely to support an open migration policy, but this effect is reversed once we account for residency requirements. Our results indicate that electoral accountability of U.S. congressmen to naturalized immigrants was a key factor in explaining this outcome.

Keywords: immigration policy, political economy

JEL Classification: F22, J61

Suggested Citation

Biavaschi, Costanza and Facchini, Giovanni, Immigrant Franchise and Immigration Policy: Evidence from the Progressive Era (April 2020). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP14684, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3594318

Costanza Biavaschi (Contact Author)

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) ( email )

Høgskoleringen
Trondheim NO-7491, 7491
Norway

Giovanni Facchini

University of Nottingham ( email )

University Park
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

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