Why is immigration such an important problem anyway?

Because here’s the thing… it’s just not that important a problem right now.  It’s most definitely not a large problem for the vast majority of Republican poll respondents insisting that this is a major problem.  

To be clear… immigration is a significant problem.  Our current immigration policies are a mess (and to be even more clear, Republicans have largely sabotaged Democratic attempts to improve the situation).  I’ve posted plenty of stuff (mostly in various quick hits) about the need to fundamentally rethink how we do immigration, about how we need to re-think refugee and asylum policy, about what we need to do about the very genuine problems going on at the border.  

But, how in the world does this get to this Gallup result in April? “Immigration Named Top U.S. Problem for Third Straight Month”

It’s all about this chart.  In short, why are Republicans so convinced that immigration is such a major problem?

I’ll tell you why.  Because so much of public opinion is actually top-down and we’ve got a constant drumbeat from Republican elites, amplified by Fox News, telling Republican identifiers that immigration is a huge problem.  Is immigration making prices more expensive?  Nope.  Is it adding to crime? Nope (though tell that to right-wing media).  Is it making it hard to find jobs? Nope– have you seen the unemployment rates?  So, what’s actually the problem.  Well, even if you accept the “chaos at the border” perspective (and, yes, really we do need to do better here), what does that have to do with you if you are an insurance salesman in Richmond, Virginia??  Nothing.  Unless you are just upset by the mere fact of all these “other” people coming into this country.

One of my favorite PS articles on this is from way back in 2000 and what it finds is pretty clear– it’s the xenophobia.

The results presented here suggest that attitudes on immigration policy are highly contingent upon stereotypical beliefs about the work ethic and intelligence of other groups, especially among whites. The role of self-interest, as measured by personal economic forecasts or by one’s national economic outlook, is not as important to attitudes on immigration once stereotypical thinking is taken into account.

Every reason to believe that’s only gotten worse.

Meanwhile, if you want to go on about immigrants stealing all our jobs, here’s a classic from Adam Davidson, “Debunking the Myth of the Job-Stealing Immigrant” that I’ve long-assigned in my Public Policy class.

Anyway, it was almost an epiphany the other day, the degree to which we just take it for granted that it’s normal for people to consider immigration our “most important” problem when rationally, there’s got to be at least a dozen issues objectively more important for the well being of the people of the United States.  But, then again, “us vs. them” runs pretty damn strong in human nature.