Coping with a changing integration policy context: American state policies and their effects on immigrant political engagement

© 2019 Regional Studies Association. Over the past two decades, US states differentially increased their involvement in immigration policy-making, producing both welcoming and restrictive legislation. This uptick allows for a systematic comparative analysis on how state-level policies affect immigrants’ political attitudes and behaviour. This paper scrutinizes this question by drawing on the policy feedback literature and using a new immigration policy database and individual-level Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) survey data. The quantitative models reveal heterogeneous effects of state-level integration policies on voter turnout and governor approval among different ethnic and nativity groups. The study comprehensively documents regional integration policy outcomes and contributes to emerging theories on spillover effects.