Which Immigrants Should Be Naturalized? Which Should Be Deported? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Côte d’Ivoire

• DOI: 10.1177/1065912918801104
• Author: John Andrew Doces,Nathaniel Terence Cogley,Beth Elise Whitaker
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918801104

Political Research Quarterly

2019, Vol. 72(3) 653 –668

© 2018 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912918801104

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Article

Immigration is a contentious topic in many countries.

Broadly speaking, attitudes are shaped by sociotropic con-

cerns about the economic and cultural impact of immi-

grants (Hainmueller and Hopkins 2014), though there are

mixed findings about the influence of specific factors at

the macro and individual levels. Existing research on

immigration attitudes has been based overwhelmingly on

countries in Western Europe and North America, where

public opinion surveys are conducted regularly. Yet,

debates about immigration are just as spirited in develop-

ing countries, especially those with high levels of

immigration.

More than half of international migrants from the

Global South live in other developing countries (World

Bank 2016). Within Africa, two-thirds of international

migrants go to other countries within the region. Their top

destinations are Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa, with each

hosting more than two million African immigrants

(Gonzalez-Garcia et al. 2016; World Bank 2016, 2018).

Immigration has been a divisive issue in both countries, at

times to the point of violence. Nevertheless, while African

countries have received ample attention from regional

specialists (e.g., Adida 2011, 2014; Bah 2010; Geschiere

2009; Landau 2011; Mitchell 2011; Neocosmos 2010;

Nyamnjoh 2006; Whitaker 2015; Whitaker and Giersch

2015), they have been largely overlooked in broader

cross-regional studies of immigration attitudes.

This article makes several important contributions.

First, we examine attitudes toward immigrants in a

developing country. Côte d’Ivoire hosts more than 2.4

million immigrants, roughly 11 percent of its population

(World Bank 2016), and recently experienced a conflict

801104PRQXXX10.1177/1065912918801104Political Research QuarterlyCogley et al.

research-article2018

1Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX, USA

2Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA

3The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Corresponding Author:

Beth Elise Whitaker, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte,

9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.

Email: bwhitaker@uncc.edu

Which Immigrants Should Be

Naturalized? Which Should Be

Deported? Evidence from a Survey

Experiment in Côte d’Ivoire

Nathaniel Terence Cogley1, John Andrew Doces2,

and Beth Elise Whitaker3

Abstract

Experimental studies on immigration attitudes have been conducted overwhelmingly in Western countries and

have focused on immigrant admission and naturalization, neglecting deportation as a possible outcome. In a survey

experiment in Côte d’Ivoire, where immigrants represent more than one-tenth of the population, we randomized

attributes of hypothetical immigrants to determine which factors influenced respondents’ support for naturalization or

deportation compared with staying in the country without citizenship. Support for naturalization was shaped by several

expected economic and social attributes, while deportation preferences were influenced primarily by the immigrant’s

legal status and level of savings. Cultural proximity produced mixed results, with respondents less likely to support the

naturalization of immigrants from neighboring African countries but also less likely to deport immigrants with whom

they shared a religious faith. Finally, respondents were more likely to support the naturalization of immigrants who

planned to vote if granted citizenship, especially when they were of the same religion as the respondent, indicating a

degree of electoral calculation in a context where voting patterns are associated with religious identities. Together,

these findings suggest that citizen preferences for naturalization and deportation are influenced by somewhat different

factors, a possibility that warrants further testing in other contexts.

Keywords

Côte d’Ivoire, immigration attitudes, naturalization, deportation, voting

654 Political Research Quarterly 72(3)

driven by issues of migration and citizenship. By ran-

domly selecting 250 respondents in six research sites in

different parts of the country, we gain a broad under-

standing of the factors shaping attitudes toward immi-

grants in that context. Second, we employ experimental

methods that only recently have started to be used to

study immigration attitudes in non-Western settings

(Harris et al. 2017). By randomizing immigrant attri-

butes like national origin, education, and voting inten-

tions, we test existing hypotheses and introduce new

variables that have not been examined elsewhere. Third,

in evaluating hypothetical immigrants, we allow respon-

dents to choose among three options: naturalization,

remain in the country without naturalization, or deporta-

tion. This provides a more complete range of possible

outcomes and allows us to simultaneously test which

factors influence preferences for each.

Our analysis shows that Ivorian respondents’ support

for naturalization was influenced by several expected

economic and social attributes, including the immigrant’s

ability to contribute to the economy and the extent of

their connections to the host country. Deportation prefer-

ences, on the contrary, were shaped most consistently by

the immigrant’s legal status and level of savings to start a

business. In testing prevailing assumptions about cultural

proximity, we obtained mixed results. Immigrants from

neighboring African countries were less likely to be

selected for naturalization compared with those from out-

side the region, but a shared religious faith between host

and immigrant also reduced support for deportation.

Finally, in a novel test of a political attribute of immi-

grants, respondents were more likely to support the natu-

ralization of immigrants who planned to vote if granted

citizenship, particularly when those immigrants shared a

religious faith with the respondent. In a context where

voting patterns are associated with religious identities,

this finding suggests a degree of electoral calculation

shaping immigration preferences. Together, these results

demonstrate that different immigrant attributes may have

differing effects on citizen support for naturalization ver-

sus their support for deportation. More research is needed

to test this possibility in other contexts and to examine the

factors that influence support for deportation in

particular.

Explaining Attitudes toward

Immigrants

Existing literature has identified a range of variables that

influence immigration attitudes. Some studies highlight

macro-level economic, demographic, and political factors

(Coenders and Scheepers 2008; Hopkins 2010; Money

1997; Quillian 1995; Rydgren 2003), while others empha-

size individual-level determinants of immigration

preferences (Burns and Gimpel 2000; Hainmueller and

Hiscox 2007, 2010; Mayda 2006; O’Rourke and Sinnott

2006; Scheve and Slaughter 2001; Sides and Citrin 2007;

Sniderman, Hagendoorn, and Prior 2004). A growing

body of literature focuses on specific characteristics of

immigrants themselves, separating the question of whom

to admit from that of how many to admit (Hainmueller

and Hopkins 2015).

With few exceptions (Adida 2011; Gordon and Maharaj

2015; Harris et al. 2017; Whitaker and Giersch 2015), pre-

vious quantitative studies have focused overwhelmingly

on immigration attitudes in Western countries (Money

2010), for which survey data are readily available. Even

recent experimental studies have been conducted mainly

in North America or Europe. The majority of global

migration takes place within the developing world, how-

ever, raising the question of whether findings from

Western countries apply in such settings.

Another shortcoming of existing literature is its empha-

sis on immigrant admission. Few studies explore citizens’

attitudes toward immigrant naturalization1 or deportation,

despite the fact that policy debates in many countries often

center on these questions. An important exception is work

by Hainmueller and Hangartner (2013), who took advan-

tage of a unique system in Switzerland that allowed citi-

zens to vote on the citizenship applications of individual

immigrants to analyze attributes influencing those out-

comes. Drawing on a survey experiment instead of a natu-

ral one, we similarly examine how different factors

influence citizens’ attitudes toward naturalization. We go

further, however, by allowing respondents to choose

among three options for each hypothetical immigrant (nat-

uralization, remain in the country without naturalization,

or deportation), thus including a broader range of possible

outcomes.

Our first cluster of hypotheses explores economic

influences on immigration attitudes. Citizens generally

prefer immigrants who are more likely to contribute to the

host country’s economy. Experimental studies have found

more support for immigrants with higher levels of educa-

tion, more job experience, employment contracts, greater

host-country language proficiency, and more skilled pro-

fessions (Hainmueller and Hangartner 2013; Hainmueller

and Hiscox 2010; Hainmueller and Hopkins 2015; Harell

et al. 2012; Wright, Levy, and Citrin 2016). There is evi-

dence that labor market competition influences attitudes,

with less skilled workers and unemployed individuals

generally more opposed to immigration (Mayda 2006;

O’Rourke and Sinnott 2006; Scheve and Slaughter 2001).

But highly educated people are more likely to support

immigrants of all skill levels, even ones that will compete

with them for jobs, suggesting that education nurtures cer-

tain values regardless of the labor market (Hainmueller

and Hiscox 2007, 2010). Consistent with these findings,