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Immigration Policy, Immigrant Representations, and Future Policy Actors. By Jaime Siembieda and Jessica Bowker PA 706 12/07/2010. Introduction. Relationship between representation of immigrants/ immigration and immigrants/ immigration policy
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Immigration Policy, Immigrant Representations, and Future Policy Actors By Jaime Siembieda and Jessica Bowker PA 706 12/07/2010
Introduction • Relationship between representation of immigrants/ immigration and immigrants/ immigration policy • Relationship between immigrants/ immigration policy and balance of scholarly research on immigrants/ immigration • What knowledge of and attitudes towards immigrants/ immigration do policy makers/ administrators have
Research Question and Hypothesis • How do future California policy makers and administrators view immigrantsand immigration? • H¹: shift in negative attitudes from concerns about immigrants “stealing” jobs to immigrants “stealing” social services • Ho: no shift • Overall negative attitudes and knowledge
Research Design • Our study population: California MPA graduate students • Variables we are measuring: • DV: Percent of negative responses about immigrants and immigration • IV: Reasons why immigrants immigrate to CA • IV: Immigrant use of social services • IV: Effect of immigration on jobs and the economy • IV: Tax contributions • IV: Fertility rate • The data collected from our survey totaled 21 variables. • The variables are ordinal with the exception of two nominal and two qualitative questions.
Survey Design • Online survey posted for two weeks on survey gizmo • 13 questions • Sample: 7. Poor undocumented immigrants pay more in California state taxes and Social Security tax than poor citizens. Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 11. What do you think are the top reasons people immigrate to California?
Univariate Analysis • We ran frequency distributions for each variable using the mode as the measure of central tendency. • Significant Results: • The majority of students surveyed (43.1%) disagree and only 15.7% agree with the statement:
Questions 11 & 13 • Respondents often didn’t offer enough material, or didn’t answer the question asked, which resulted in a very high number of “undetermined” responses. • When asked why immigrants immigrate to CA, 57% responded for work or economic reasons. • When asked to explain why immigration was or was not in their top choices for pressing policy concerns for CA, 59% said that other issues such as the economy, state deficit, or education funding were more important.
Qualitative Analysis • Responses in Question #11 overwhelmingly depict the US in a favorable light and countries of origin as negative, lacking in safety, economic options, freedom, and opportunity. There is virtually no acknowledgement of the negative aspects of immigrant experiences in the US. • A trend amongst “positive” responses in question #13 is that many respondents explicitly or implicitly imply that immigration is a positive factor because it helps keeps costs low for citizens by providing cheap labor.
Multivariate Analysis • We ran statistical tests to begin analyzing the relationship between the independent variables (questions that measure attitudes towards immigrants and immigration 4, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 13) against the dependent variable (percent negative in all attitude questions). • Regression Model
Weaknesses and Justifications • Data collection: not random, disproportionately SFSU • Honest answers?