色吧亚洲

Political scientist Adrian Shin and UCLA colleague find that rising levels of inequality have opposite effects on immigration policies in wealthy vs. developing economies

Does rising inequality lead to more-restrictive or less-restrictive immigration policies?

The answer is 鈥渂oth,鈥� according to University of Colorado 色吧亚洲 Assistant Professor of Political Science , who makes that case in a recently published essay with UCLA Associate Professor of Political Science . The pair found that rising inequality leads to stricter immigration policies in lower-income countries, whereas the opposite occurs in higher-income countries.

Shin studies international political economy and focuses on migration. But he also has an interest in inequality, and for some time has been looking to bridge the two areas.

鈥淭here are a lot of experts who study these topics, but the connection isn鈥檛 always clear,鈥� he says.

鈥淚nequality and Immigration Policy,鈥� published online by Studies in Comparative International Development in September, is Shin鈥檚 鈥渟tepping-stone from the migration research to the inequality research.鈥�

Shin defines inequality in economic and industrial terms.

When a product is made, he explains, its value increases with each stage of production. That increase is called 鈥渧alue added.鈥� Some of the value added belongs to factory owners, otherwise known as capital, and some of it belongs to workers, otherwise known as labor.听

The gap dividing capital鈥檚 share of value added from labor鈥檚 share is inequality, Shin explains. And when that gap widens鈥攚hen capital鈥檚 share far outweighs labor鈥檚, for instance鈥攊nequality can be said to be rising.听

After analyzing data on 24 democratic countries from 1947 to 2006, Shin and Peters found that rising inequality is linked with both stricter and more lenient immigration policies.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 the determining factor?鈥� Shin asks rhetorically. 鈥淭he country鈥檚 economic development.鈥�

In low-income economies, Shin says, rising inequality leads to more restrictive immigration policies, whereas in high-income economies it does the opposite.

Key to understanding why is the idea of competition, Shin argues. Local workers in low-income economies compete with migrant workers for the same jobs and consequently develop anti-immigration attitudes, which then prompt stricter immigration laws.

On the other hand, local workers in high-income economies don鈥檛 compete with migrant workers for the same jobs. Anti-immigration attitudes therefore wane, and labor-intensive firms end up using their wealth and power to push for more relaxed immigration policies, given that more migrants means more workers.

Shin suggests that this research can help to reveal what makes a democratic country鈥檚 immigration policies tick.

鈥淚mmigration policy variation is a puzzle,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ometimes it looks like policymakers are introducing restrictions out of nowhere, but a lot of these explanatory variables are already in the current of politics.鈥�

Things get a bit tricky, however, when studying countries with complicated political systems, such as the United States.

鈥淚t鈥檚 easier to analyze European countries, in a way, because they sometimes have just one electoral district, as in the case of the Netherlands,鈥� Shin says.

鈥淲hen it comes to countries like the U.S., although inequality might influence immigration policy, ultimately what really decides policy outcomes is how these interests and forces are translated through very peculiar political institutions.鈥�

In the future, Shin plans to study how racial or ethnic inequality shapes immigration policy. 鈥淪pecifically, does increasing ethnic inequality lead to changes in immigration or emigration policies?鈥�

Shin intends to focus that research on the Global South, which denotes generally poorer regions within Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Yet doing so, he notes, will pose some challenges.

鈥淲hen it comes to the Global South, it is hard to collect data on immigration policies and to know what to make of the data because they are often not enforced by governments. Obtaining reliable data on immigration policies that have actual policy ramifications is likely to be difficult,鈥� he says.

Difficult or not, Shin, who also on political survival in the show Game of Thrones, is ready. It鈥檚 hard to faze someone who鈥檚 sat on the Iron Throne.

鈥淲elcome to academic research,鈥� he says.