IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14934.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Opening Heaven's Door: Public Opinion and Congressional Votes on the 1965 Immigration Act

Author

Listed:
  • Facchini, Giovanni

    (University of Nottingham)

  • Hatton, Timothy J.

    (University of Essex)

  • Steinhardt, Max F.

    (Free University of Berlin)

Abstract

The Immigration Act of 1965 marked a dramatic shift in policy and one with major long term consequences for the volume and composition of immigration to the United States. Here we explore the political economy of a reform that has been overshadowed by the Civil Rights and Great Society programs. We find that public opinion was against expanding immigration, but it was more favorable to abolishing the old country of origin quota system. Votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate were more closely linked to opinion on abolishing the country of origin quotas than to public opinion on the volume of immigration. Support for immigration reform initially followed in the slipstream of civil rights legislation both among members of Congress and their constituents. The final House vote, on a more restrictive version of the bill, was instead more detached from state-level public opinion on civil rights and gained more support from those whose constituents wanted to see immigration decreased.

Suggested Citation

  • Facchini, Giovanni & Hatton, Timothy J. & Steinhardt, Max F., 2021. "Opening Heaven's Door: Public Opinion and Congressional Votes on the 1965 Immigration Act," IZA Discussion Papers 14934, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14934.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    2. Anna Maria Mayda, 2006. "Who Is Against Immigration? A Cross-Country Investigation of Individual Attitudes toward Immigrants," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(3), pages 510-530, August.
    3. Dustmann Christian & Preston Ian P, 2007. "Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-41, November.
    4. Casarico, Alessandra & Facchini, Giovanni & Frattini, Tommaso, 2018. "What drives the legalization of immigrants? Evidence from IRCA," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 258-273.
    5. Levitt, Steven D, 1996. "How Do Senators Vote? Disentangling the Role of Voter Preferences, Party Affiliation, and Senate Ideology," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 425-441, June.
    6. Park, David K. & Gelman, Andrew & Bafumi, Joseph, 2004. "Bayesian Multilevel Estimation with Poststratification: State-Level Estimates from National Polls," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 375-385.
    7. Charles Keely, 1971. "Effects of the immigration act of 1965 on selected population characteristics of immigrants to the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 8(2), pages 157-169, May.
    8. Sides, John & Citrin, Jack, 2007. "European Opinion About Immigration: The Role of Identities, Interests and Information," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 477-504, July.
    9. Gordon H. Hanson & Kenneth Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2007. "Public Finance And Individual Preferences Over Globalization Strategies," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 1-33, March.
    10. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda, 2012. "Individual Attitudes Towards Skilled Migration: An Empirical Analysis Across Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 183-196, February.
    11. David S. Lee & Enrico Moretti & Matthew J. Butler, 2004. "Do Voters Affect or Elect Policies? Evidence from the U. S. House," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 807-859.
    12. Kenneth F. Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2001. "Labor Market Competition And Individual Preferences Over Immigration Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 133-145, February.
    13. Facchini, Giovanni & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2011. "What drives U.S. immigration policy? Evidence from congressional roll call votes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 734-743.
    14. Elisabeth R. Gerber & Jeffrey B. Lewis, 2004. "Beyond the Median: Voter Preferences, District Heterogeneity, and Political Representation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1364-1383, December.
    15. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda, 2009. "Does the Welfare State Affect Individual Attitudes toward Immigrants? Evidence across Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 295-314, May.
    16. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J., 2010. "Attitudes toward Highly Skilled and Low-skilled Immigration: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(1), pages 61-84, February.
    17. Timothy J. Hatton, 2015. "United States Immigration Policy: The 1965 Act and its Consequences," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(2), pages 347-368, April.
    18. Lax, Jeffrey R. & Phillips, Justin H., 2009. "Gay Rights in the States: Public Opinion and Policy Responsiveness," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(3), pages 367-386, August.
    19. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J., 2007. "Educated Preferences: Explaining Attitudes Toward Immigration in Europe," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(2), pages 399-442, April.
    20. Jeffrey R. Lax & Justin H. Phillips, 2012. "The Democratic Deficit in the States," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 148-166, January.
    21. Caughey, Devin & Warshaw, Christopher, 2018. "Policy Preferences and Policy Change: Dynamic Responsiveness in the American States, 1936–2014," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(2), pages 249-266, May.
    22. Jorge G. Gonzalez & Nipoli Kamdar, 2000. "Do Not Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor! Determinants of Legislator Voting on Immigration Issues," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 127-143, Spring.
    23. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    24. Jeffrey R. Lax & Justin H. Phillips, 2009. "How Should We Estimate Public Opinion in The States?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 107-121, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bjorn Brey, 2021. "The effect of recent technological change on US immigration policy," Discussion Papers 2021-02, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    2. Hatton, Timothy J., 2014. "Public Opinion on Immigration: Has the Recession Changed Minds?," IZA Discussion Papers 8248, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Huber, Peter & Oberdabernig, Doris A., 2016. "The impact of welfare benefits on natives' and immigrants' attitudes toward immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 53-78.
    4. Huber, Peter & Oberdabernig, Doris A., 2016. "The impact of welfare benefits on natives' and immigrants' attitudes toward immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 53-78.
    5. Peter Huber & Doris A. Oberdabernig, 2015. "The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Natives' and Immigrants' Attitudes Towards Immigration. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 82," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57890, April.
    6. Jens Hainmueller & Daniel J. Hopkins, 2013. "Public Attitudes toward Immigration," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1315, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    7. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    8. Facchini, Giovanni & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2011. "What drives U.S. immigration policy? Evidence from congressional roll call votes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 734-743, August.
    9. Tobias Müller & Silvio Hong Tiing Tai, 2020. "Individual attitudes towards migration: A re‐examination of the evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1663-1702, November.
    10. Palermo, Francesco & Sergi, Bruno S. & Sironi, Emiliano, 2022. "Does urbanization matter? Diverging attitudes toward migrants and Europe's decision-making," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J. & Margalit, Yotam, 2015. "Do concerns about labor market competition shape attitudes toward immigration? New evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 193-207.
    12. Giovanni Facchini & Tommaso Frattini & Cora Signorotto, 2013. "Mind What Your Voters Read: Media Exposure and International Economic Policy Making," Development Working Papers 358, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    13. Paola Conconi & Giovanni Facchini & Max F. Steinhardt & Maurizio Zanardi, 2020. "The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 250-278, July.
    14. Noel Gaston & Douglas R. Nelson, 2013. "Bridging Trade Theory And Labour Econometrics: The Effects Of International Migration," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 98-139, February.
    15. Christian Ochsner & Felix Rösel, 2017. "Activated History - The Case of the Turkish Sieges of Vienna," CESifo Working Paper Series 6586, CESifo.
    16. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda & Riccardo Puglisi, 2017. "Illegal immigration and media exposure: evidence on individual attitudes," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-36, December.
    17. Sarah Bridges & Simona Mateut, 2009. "Attitudes towards immigration in Europe," Working Papers 2009008, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised May 2009.
    18. Sebastian Fietkau & Kasper M Hansen, 2018. "How perceptions of immigrants trigger feelings of economic and cultural threats in two welfare states," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(1), pages 119-139, March.
    19. Ortega, Francesc & Polavieja, Javier G., 2012. "Labor-market exposure as a determinant of attitudes toward immigration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 298-311.
    20. Judit Oláh & György Halasi & Zoltán Szakály & József Popp, 2017. "The Impact of International Migration on the Labor Market – A Case Study from Hungary," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(46), pages 790-790, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    US immigration policy; 1965 Immigration Act; congressional voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14934. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.