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.
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
- “Restrictions Increase Willingness to Pay for Immigrant Integration Policy.” with Clayton Nall. Working Paper.
- “When Threat Doesn’t Mobilize: Linking Policy Perceptions with Behavior Among Non-Citizen Immigrants.” Working Paper.
- “State Policy and Immigrant 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.
- “Zero-Sum Thinking and Policy Attitudes.” with Clayton Nall. Data Collected.
- “Fair Policy, Favorable Opinion? Increasing the Salience of Immigrant Integration Policy.”
Taylor N. Trummel 