On the political economics of immigration

Résumé

Immigration is currently a hot issue in many parliaments of many developed countries. Why is it so? why the control of immigration might be the relevant issue in elections?. In other words: why immigration is important for the host country's voters? The answer is that immigration may a.ect host country natives welfare. In general, immigration may a.ect host country natives welfare through two di.erent channels, the economic channel (labor market, fiscal policy) and non economic channel (cultural conflict, xenophobia). There are quite extended literature about the economic e.ect of immigration on natives welfare (for instance see Borjas, 1994 and 1995, and Zimmerman,1995 for some excellent surveys). However, there is not so many research papers dealing with the non economic e.ect of immigration even though there are empirical evidence of the importance of this non economic e.ect on shaping natives preferences over immigration.