The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States

Immigration is one of the most important political and social issues around the world. The political discourse is often reflected in the rise of anti-immigrant, right-wing parties that emphasize the lack of immigrants’ assimilation, painting it as a vital threat to host societies. While a large and growing body of work has examined the short run political impact of immigration (Dustmann et al. 2019; Tabellini, 2020), much less is known about the effects of immigration on natives’ political ideology in the long run...