Russel Sage Foundation

Since the 1990s, U.S. state legislatures have become increasingly responsible for immigration policymaking. Still, social scientists lack a publicly available, decades-long, policy database documenting the rise of state immigration policies. Additionally, comprehensive understanding of the factors that predict state immigration policymaking, including changing state demographic and socioeconomic landscapes, remains limited. Demographer Rebecca Schut will create a publicly available database of state immigration policies from 1990 to 2025 and will examine the extent to which state-level sociodemographic changes predict more restrictive or accommodating state-level immigration policymaking. She will analyze data from a number of sources for her project, including the 50 state legislature websites, the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) Immigration Legislation Database, the NCSL Occupational Licensing Legislation Database, and the Urban Institute Immigration Policy Resource.