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 policy features affect attitudes using an original survey, unique measurements of fairness, and a pre-registered 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. I argue that American immigration attitudes are driven by perceptions of fairness, an overlooked moral mechanism.
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
- “When Threat Doesn’t Mobilize: The Conditional Political Participation of Immigrants” Under Review
Working Papers
- “Beyond Threat: Explaining Immigration Attitudes in the United States.”Job Market Paper
- “State Immigrant Policy and Non-Citizen Political Participation: Is participation decreased by more inclusive policy?” Working Paper
Research in Progress
- “Measuring Fairness in Empirical Research”
- “Immigrant Integration Policy and Perceptions of Fairness by Race”
- “Public Opinion and the Economic Trade-Offs of Immigrant Integration Policy”
Taylor N. Trummel 