{"title":"To What Extent Does Asylum Policy Match Public Policy Preferences?","authors":"Tiphaine Le Corre, James Tilley","doi":"10.1177/01979183241253502","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Although a large body of research demonstrates that policymakers generally respond to citizens’ preferences, immigration issues are often thought to elude this model of representation. It has been widely argued that immigration policymaking is characterized by an “opinion-policy gap” whereby immigration policies are more permissive than public preferences. However, we argue that immigration policy preferences have been poorly measured. Adopting a multidimensional approach, we disaggregate immigration into its component policies and focus specifically on asylum policy preferences. We test whether current asylum policies align with public opinion in Britain using an original conjoint experiment with realistic policy choices relative to the status quo. Contrary to the gap hypothesis, we show that the British public is not consistently in favor of more restrictive asylum policies. Our findings suggest that immigration policy preferences can be better understood by disaggregating the multidimensional policy field of immigration.","PeriodicalId":48229,"journal":{"name":"International Migration Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Migration Review","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241253502","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although a large body of research demonstrates that policymakers generally respond to citizens’ preferences, immigration issues are often thought to elude this model of representation. It has been widely argued that immigration policymaking is characterized by an “opinion-policy gap” whereby immigration policies are more permissive than public preferences. However, we argue that immigration policy preferences have been poorly measured. Adopting a multidimensional approach, we disaggregate immigration into its component policies and focus specifically on asylum policy preferences. We test whether current asylum policies align with public opinion in Britain using an original conjoint experiment with realistic policy choices relative to the status quo. Contrary to the gap hypothesis, we show that the British public is not consistently in favor of more restrictive asylum policies. Our findings suggest that immigration policy preferences can be better understood by disaggregating the multidimensional policy field of immigration.
期刊介绍:
International Migration Review is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal created to encourage and facilitate the study of all aspects of sociodemographic, historical, economic, political, legislative and international migration. It is internationally regarded as the principal journal in the field facilitating study of international migration, ethnic group relations, and refugee movements. Through an interdisciplinary approach and from an international perspective, IMR provides the single most comprehensive forum devoted exclusively to the analysis and review of international population movements.