ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on that demographic differences between “traditional” and “new gateway” destinations are the starting point for understanding the social change wrought by immigration and the differing opportunities for collective action this creates for both anti- and pro-immigrant interests. Case studies provide an ideal research tool for understanding why states that largely conform to the causal diagram of cross-state research growing immigrant populations, similar partisan tendencies nonetheless yield differing policy configurations. Demographic change is frequently cited as antecedent to shifts in immigrant policy, typically through opposing pressures between the size of immigrant populations and their growth rate. The dispersion of immigrants to emerging gateways meant that some states experienced unusually large increases in their foreign-born populations. Nationwide, inclusionary policies were more often adopted in central cities and inner-ring suburbs with long histories of racial and economic diversity; restrictive policy adoptions occurred more often in outer-ring suburban communities with predominantly white residents.
