A compelling explanation for why the American immigration system is more restrictive than other developed countries is that voters here do not feel that they have control over the border. Pictures, videos, and the widespread perception that there is chaos on the border caused by illegal immigrants, despite facts to the contrary, have the effect of convincing American voters to be less liberal on the issue than they otherwise would be. A recent paper by political scientists Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka, and Shanto Iyengar in the journal Political Psychology tests this “locus of control”...
Immigration Politics and the Perception of Chaos
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