Welcoming Cities: Immigration Policy at the Local Government Level

Abstract

In the face of continued immigration to the United States and federal policy inertia, many local governments have started to adopt their own immigrant-related policies to cope with the newcomers. Among them, welcoming cities represent a new wave of inclusive local government responses that seeks to incorporate immigrants socially and economically and deviates from the previous policies that focus on law enforcement and legal status. In this article, we explore the rationales behind these cities' commitment to immigrant integration by examining the effect of theory-based local demographic, economic, political, fiscal, and institutional characteristics and national network organization on local governments' policy adoption. Our results indicate that cities that have an educated, diverse, and liberal population, are more economically troubled but fiscally sound are more likely to become welcoming cities. The Welcoming America as an umbrella organization also plays an important role in facilitating the welcoming movement.

Policies of Exclusion: Implications for the Health of Immigrants and Their Children

“…The adoption of more restrictive state immigrant policies has been associated with anti-immigrant anxieties that reflect both economic insecurity and growing proportions of immigrants who are racialized (i.e. perceived as nonwhite) in a state (55, 146). Thus, any associations between these policies and immigrant health may reflect not only their associations with reductions in socio-economic resources but also their associations with anti-immigrant sentiment and hostility.…”

“…As monitoring and evaluation continues, researchers also need to evaluate the emergence of “welcoming-city” initiatives (55). These initiatives reflect the proactive efforts of immigrants and community-based partners to respond to exclusionary policies.…”

Partisan Attitudes toward Sanctuary Cities: The Asymmetrical Effects of Political Knowledge

“…For instance, individuals with little economic resources may view immigrants as depressing American wages and capturing American jobs (Citrin et al ) or think that low‐skilled immigrants introduce additional costs to local communities (e.g., when they access public services; Hainmueller and Hiscox () . Relatedly, individuals with lower levels of education may disproportionately harbor racial intolerance, opposition to immigration, and reticence toward cultural diversity (Hainmueller and Hiscox , ; Huang and Liu ). To account for these dynamics, we include measures for income, education, and home‐ownership status .…”

How Does Interracial Contact Among the U.S.-BORN Shape White and Black Receptivity Toward Immigrants?

“…One receptivity measure was inspired by the growing research literature on welcoming. Though most of this literature has focused on welcoming at the level of law and policy (e.g., Fisher Williamson 2018; Huang and Liu 2017; Huo et al 2018; Williams 2015), it increasingly refers to welcoming relations that take place between individuals within such institutions or in other routine daily encounters (see Calvo et al 2017; Fussell 2014; Jones-Correa et al 2018; Marrow 2012; Tropp et al 2018). The concept of welcoming signifies an openness to greeting and including members of other groups within a community, with the expectation that all groups in a given context will be accepted and treated with respect (Jones-Correa 2011b; Livert 2017; Welcoming America 2017; Williams 2015).…”