The Atlantic on America's Dramatic Shift Right on Immigration

Rogé Karma is the author of this new piece from The Atlantic: The Most Dramatic Shift in U.S. Public Opinion. It is all about America's substantial and recent shift right on immigration.

Karma notes that: "In 2020, 28 percent of Americans told Gallup that immigration should decrease. Just four years later, that number had risen to 55 percent—the highest level since 2001." He continues: "Although public opinion is known to ebb and flow, a reversal this big, and this fast, is nearly unheard-of."

Karma identifies something called the “'chaos theory'" of immigration sentiment. The basic idea, grounded in both survey data and political-science research, is that when the immigration process is perceived as fair and orderly, voters are more likely to tolerate it. When it is perceived as out of control and unfair—perhaps due to an uncommonly large surge of migrants—then the public quickly turns against it."

-KitJ