TABLE OF CONTENTS
1/ Introduction
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0001
[immigration;immigrant;local government;municipal;new immigrant destination;federal;immigrant incorporation;restriction;accommodation;backlash]
This chapter introduces the importance of understanding local government responses to immigrants amid increasing devolution of immigration enforcement coupled with immigrant dispersion to new destinations. It describes federal requirements for how local governments respond to immigrants, the resultant mix of municipal responses, and existing findings about how these responses shape immigrant incorporation. It introduces the book’s theory; namely, that local government officials tend to accommodate rather than restrict immigrants because they face distinct incentives that cause them to frame immigrants as clients and contributors. Owing to these distinct incentives, local government officials accommodate immigrants in ways that largely benefit local elites and can precipitate backlash from the broader public. The chapter presents the study’s methodology of inductive theory-building case studies in four new immigrant destinations—Lewiston, Maine; Wausau, Wisconsin; Elgin, Illinois; and Yakima, Washington— followed by deductive theory testing using a national survey of municipal officials.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
2/ Municipal Responses across Four New Immigrant Destinations
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0002
[immigrant;local government;new immigrant destination;Lewiston, Maine;Wausau, Wisconsin;Elgin, Illinois;Yakima, Washington;refugee;Hmong;Somali]
This chapter examines how local government responses to immigrants evolved over twenty-five years (1990-2015) in four new immigrant destinations: Lewiston, Maine; Wausau, Wisconsin; Elgin, Illinois; and Yakima, Washington. Drawing on the cases, the chapter introduces a model of local government response, which classifies municipalities in terms of how actively they respond and whether the tenor of response tends toward accommodation or restriction. The case studies identify a trend toward accommodation over time in three of the four cities, as well as revealing the substantive importance of local government inaction in response to immigrants. In the refugee destinations of Lewiston and Wausau, with their Somali and Hmong populations, respectively, we see a progression of responses from providing services, to broader convening around immigrant issues, to incorporating immigrants into local public life. In three out of four cities we see a restrictive response followed by intensified efforts at accommodation.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
3/ Municipal Responses Nationwide: Frequent Inaction, Substantial Accommodation, Rare Restriction
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0003
[immigrant;Municipal Responses to Immigrants Survey;local government;municipal;restriction;accommodation;compliance;language access;immigration enforcement;federal]
This chapter analyzes the Municipal Responses to Immigrants Survey to demonstrate the degree and tenor of local government responses to immigrants nationwide. Drawing on the model of municipal response developed through case studies, it categorizes responses to immigrants as compliant, inactive, restrictive, or accommodating. It then introduces indexes of local accommodation and restriction that demonstrate the prevalence of inaction and accommodation and the dearth of restriction across towns nationwide. Most towns clearly comply with federal language access and enforcement requirements, though roughly one in five remain inactive even with respect to these mandates. Less than one in five towns have implemented any restrictive initiatives, and more than four in five have implemented at least some accommodating initiatives.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
4/ Federal Policies, National Politics, and Local Understanding of Immigrants
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0004
[immigrant;local government;municipal;framing;Republican;federal;ethnic threat]
This chapter investigates the factors that explain municipal inaction, accommodation, and restriction in response to immigrants. Local capacity and immigrant visibility influence whether local governments take action to respond to immigrants. State and federal policies and national political rhetoric shape officials’ framing of immigrants, thereby influencing how municipalities respond. Towns where positive frames of immigrants are accessible and resonant–especially places exposed to accommodating state and federal policies–are more likely to accommodate, while towns where negative frames of immigrants are more prevalent–including places with a greater proportion of Republican voters–are less likely to accommodate and more likely to restrict. Some have argued that ethnic demographic change precipitates restrictive responses, but this chapter demonstrates that factors associated with ethnic threat do not drive municipal responses.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
5/ Beyond Bureaucrats: Elected and Appointed Officials’ Incentives for Accommodation
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0005
[immigrant;local government;federal;bureaucrat;elected official;police chief;incorporation;immigration enforcement;ideology]
This chapter explains what motivates local government officials’ responses to immigrants. Local officials’ socioeconomic characteristics, coupled with legal and economic incentives associated with their position, foreground understandings of immigrants as clients and contributors. Federal policies that require local officials to provide educational and other services to immigrants frame the newcomers as municipal clients. In addition, given limited options for raising local revenues, municipal officials increasingly see immigrant workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers as contributors to their economy. Contrary to findings in earlier studies, both bureaucrats and elected officials have incentives to incorporate immigrants. Some officials—particularly police chiefs—are less interested in serving immigrants and more interested in enforcement because their official role or political ideology foregrounds negative frames of immigrants. While these findings indicate that some local government officials are susceptible to negative frames of immigrants, the overall picture indicates that they are relatively supportive of immigrants. Indeed, comparing local officials’ views with polling responses from the general public, officials express distinctly more favorable views of immigrants.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
6/ The Civil Rights Legacy, External Scrutiny, and Reining in Restrictive Response
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0006
[immigrant;local government;restrictive;scrutiny;new immigrant destination;federal;civil rights;protected class;antidiscriminatory;ordinance]
This chapter demonstrates that when local government officials implement restrictive responses to immigrants they often face external scrutiny that leads them to scale back restriction out of concern over legal and reputational costs. In Lewiston, Wausau, and Elgin, restrictive responses to immigrants generated external scrutiny from federal regulators, national advocacy groups, and the media, which framed immigrants as a protected class under civil rights law. Local officials responded by scaling back restriction and even implementing compensatory accommodation. This pattern is also evident across the ninety-four cities and towns that considered or passed restrictive ordinances in 2006-7. These cities experienced a marked decline in restriction over time. Eight years later ordinances remained in effect in only one-third of towns and were scaled back in some way in more than three-quarters. Where external scrutiny was greater, ordinances were less likely to remain in effect, even holding constant other salient factors. Even in small, previously homogeneous new immigrant destinations local officials are sensitive to definitions of immigrants as a protected class under civil rights law and in some cases have internalized antidiscriminatory norms associated with these protections.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
7/ The Select Few: Municipal Accommodation and Elite Collaboration
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0007
[immigrant;immigrant political incorporation;municipal;accommodation;new immigrant destination;intermediary;local government;elites;mobilization;civic participation]
This chapter examines how municipal accommodation influences immigrant political incorporation. Will municipal accommodation enable immigrant participation, or will it dampen foreign-born mobilization? Specifically, the chapter analyzes prevalent local government efforts to hire and appoint immigrant intermediaries, who connect officials and immigrants who are otherwise separated by linguistic and cultural barriers. Survey data reveals that even beyond new immigrant destinations, local government officials often rely on such individual intermediaries rather than turning to immigrant organizations identified in past literature. Immigrant intermediaries can open productive communication channels between officials and immigrant leaders as well as sometimes engaging additional newcomers in local civic participation. That said, local officials act on their own incentives to accommodate immigrants and therefore do so in ways that disproportionately benefit established and immigrant elites rather than immigrants more broadly.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
8/ Municipal Accommodation: Generating Welcome or Backlash?
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0008
[immigrant;municipal;accommodation;new immigrant destination;local government;backlash;inequality;interethnic contact;deserving;resentment]
This chapter demonstrates that municipal efforts to aid immigrants can result in resentment toward the foreign-born as well as the local officials who serve them because the public does not necessarily share officials’ incentives to accommodate. Across the four new immigrant destinations, long-term residents often perceive efforts to serve immigrants as preferential treatment for undeserving outsiders. Disagreements among established residents over how to respond to immigrants exacerbate divisions between residents and leaders amid socioeconomic inequality. On the national level, whites have been shifting toward the Republican Party, in part over immigration concerns. This chapter offers a sense of how backlash against immigrants and supportive officials emerges locally. To address these challenges, local government officials can promote public acceptance of immigrants by fostering opportunities for meaningful interethnic contact, which make positive perceptions of immigrants more resonant with the public.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
9/ Conclusion
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226572796.003.0009
[immigration;municipal;accommodation;local government;sanctuary city;President Donald Trump;intergovernmental;immigrant incorporation;federal;anti-immigrant]
Having demonstrated a clear trend toward municipal accommodation of immigrants, explained how it arose, and detailed its consequences, this conclusion discusses the broader implications of these findings for intergovernmental dynamics and immigrant incorporation. It also takes up the question of whether municipal accommodation will continue under President Trump. Thus far, municipal accommodation has proved largely resilient. Indeed, sanctuary cities have become even more outspoken. But local government accommodation may become more vulnerable, particularly if accommodating cities are penalized by their states, if immigration becomes politicized locally in ways that generate calls for restriction, or if the Trump administration succeeds in dismantling civil rights protections. Overall, this book suggests that municipal accommodation can advance immigrant incorporation when effectively designed. To promote broad-based immigrant advancement, municipal officials should support immigrant organizations rather than relying on individual intermediaries. To promote societal acceptance, they should structure opportunities for meaningful interethnic contact. Where restrictive episodes arise, advocates may scale back restriction by highlighting violations of antidiscriminatory norms. These efforts can advance incorporation, but municipalities rarely possess adequate resources to substantially enhance immigrants’ capacity. Comprehensive federal reform remains essential, especially given the federal government’s far-reaching influence in framing immigrants and shaping local officials’ responses.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
