Coming to America: Immigration, Political Campaigning, and Polarization

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Axel Dreher; Dr. Sarah Langlotz
• Subject Area: Economic Policy, Applied Economics ; Political Science
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 467213010

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Immigration has been a focal point of political debate across the world, raising questions about its role in shaping polarization and political ideology. Worldwide, 122.6 million persons have been forcibly displaced at the end of 2024. In this project, we focus on the United States, which ”has welcomed more than three million refugees from all over the world, and these refugees have built new lives for their families in all 50 states” since 1975. Political polarization and the share of immigrants, including refugees, have risen in tandem, culminating in the highest levels of polarization and immigration since the 1910s, when World War I triggered mass emigration out of Europe to the United States. The project aims to contribute a profound analysis of the effects of migrant and refugee inflows on diverse political outcomes and the role of political campaigning in the United States. Apart from its contribution to scientific progress, the project helps to formulate migration policies, which is arguably one of the most pertinent issues of our time. This project has enabled us to work on articles we plan to submit to leading economics journals. We also produced a public good – new high-resolution data on refugees in the U.S. Thanks to the grant, we have strengthened ties with important cooperation partners (in particular with Giovanni Peri, UC Davis, one of the leading experts on migration). The grant allowed us to work on three (ongoing) projects: • Immigration, Political Ideologies and the Polarization of American Politics • Can refugees revitalize America? • How migrant stocks and migrant flows affect political outcomes. The grant resulted in new data on refugees in the United States; refugee resettlement centers.

Publications

• Immigration, Political Ideologies and the Polarization of American Politics. SSRN Electronic Journal.
  Dreher, Axel; Langlotz, Sarah; Matzat, Johannes; Mayda, Anna Maria & Parsons, Christopher Robert