I’m broadly interested in migration and American Politics research using causal inference and other quantitative methods.
My research primarily focuses on how immigration policy affects political behavior, attitudes, and identity in the United States. More specifically, I examine the relationships between state-level immigrant policy and outcomes such as immigrant political participation, linked fate, and policy preferences.
Furthermore, my work looks at intra-group differences among U.S. racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants by national origin and citizenship status.
My job market paper examines how state-level immigrant integration policy features affect attitudes using an original survey, unique measurements of fairness, and a pre-registered, single-profile conjoint experiment. I test how policy attributes such as eligibility criteria and social service provision affect perceptions of fairness and policy support, finding little evidence for economic and cultural threat arguments.
I show that Americans are supportive of allocating social services to immigrants when a variety of law and security-based criteria are met. Moreover, I find very limited evidence that immigrants’ region of origin influences perceptions of fairness or policy support.
The collection of this original large survey (n=3,000) was supported by numerous successful grant applications and is the basis for ongoing and future projects addressing American immigration attitudes. It was recently awarded additional funding from the American Political Science Association Centennial Center.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- “Inclusive Policies, Stronger Identities: The Impact of State Policy on Immigrant Linked Fate.” 2025. Politics, Groups, and Identities.
Submitted Manuscripts
- “What Makes Policy Fair? Evidence from U.S. Immigrant Integration Policy and Public Opinion.” Job Market Paper.
Working Papers
- “When Threat Doesn’t Mobilize: The Conditional Political Participation of Immigrants.” Working Paper.
- “Linking Policy with Perceptions: How Hostile Environments Affect Immigrant Political Engagement.” Working Paper.
- “State Immigrant Policy and Non-Citizen Political Participation: Is participation decreased by more inclusive policy?” Working Paper.
- “Measuring Fairness in Empirical Research.” Working Paper.
Research in Progress
- “State Integration Policy, Perceptions of Fairness, and Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers in the United States.” Data Collected.
- “Immigrant Integration Policy and Perceptions of Fairness by Race.” Data Collected.
- “Public Opinion, Fairness, and the Economic Trade-Offs of Immigrant Integration Policy.” with Clayton Nall. Fielding Survey.
- “Zero-Sum Thinking and Housing Policy Attitudes.” with Clayton Nall. Fielding Survey.
- “Fair Policy, Favorable Opinion? Increasing the Salience of Immigrant Integration Policy.”
Taylor N. Trummel 