As a nation of immigrants, the United States has often been more consumed by questions of relations and power between groups within its society, than with the question of who comes and goes. Over recent years, however, as citizens’ concerns about status, representation and security have escalated, the political rhetoric on immigration in America has taken a level of ferocity and drama previously more often associated with Europe. …
A survey we have conducted with Ipsos for a new research report captures this climate of resentment, fear and mistrust. It finds that 55 per cent of Americans believe that their government is concealing the true cost of immigration to taxpayers and society, signalling that conspiracy thinking on this issue has well and truly become mainstream. CONT.
Sophia Gaston & Joseph Uscinski, LSE USAPP