Taylor N. Trummel

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

1. “Inclusive Policies, Stronger Identities: The Impact of State Policy on Immigrant Linked Fate.” 2025. Politics, Groups, and Identities.
   • Online Appendix
   • Replication Files

Working Papers

1. “How Immigrant Integration Policy Affects Perceptions of Fairness.” Job Market Paper.
   • Pre-Analysis Plan
2. “When Threat Doesn’t Mobilize: The Conditional Political Participation of Immigrants.” Working Paper.
3. “Linking Policy with Perceptions: How Hostile Environments Affect Immigrant Political Engagement.” Working Paper.
4. “State Immigrant Policy and Non-Citizen Political Participation: Is participation decreased by more inclusive policy?” Working Paper.

Research in Progress

• “State Integration Policy, Perceptions of Fairness, and Attitudes toward Asylum Seekers in the United States.” Data Collected.
  • Pre-Analysis Plan
• “Public Opinion and the Economic Trade-Offs of Immigrant Integration Policy.” Funded.
• “Fair Policy, Favorable Opinion? Increasing the Salience of Immigrant Integration Policy.” Pending Grant Support.
• “Measuring Fairness in Empirical Research.” Data Collected.
• “Immigrant Integration Policy and Perceptions of Fairness by Race.” Data Collected.