In recent years, prominent Republican elites have instituted statewide migrant transportation programs in which asylum-seeking migrants are “bused” to liberal cities across the country. These programs are often justified by invoking NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard), suggesting that when people must consider the effects of immigration policy in terms of their own community, their attitudes toward immigrants may shift.

Despite these claims, existing scholarship has yet to document whether and how American immigration preferences vary by spatial scale—or to evaluate the relative importance of such variation compared to other determinants of immigration attitudes.

Findings from a conjoint experiment conducted by UCR graduate students Jieun Lee and Harry G. Muttram reveal that Americans, on average, oppose immigrants proposed to move into their neighborhoods. However, spatial scale does not significantly alter considerations at the national, state, or city level. The relative importance of this NIMBY effect is modest compared to other individual-level characteristics of an immigrant. Moreover, despite elite claims of “liberal hypocrisy” in immigration, the study finds no evidence that the NIMBY effect varies by partisanship—both Democrats and Republicans exhibit similar, modest preferences against immigrants expected to move to their neighborhoods.

For the full article, see:
Lee, Jieun, and Harry G. Muttram. 2025. “American Immigration Attitudes and NIMBYism: Do Immigration Preferences Vary by Spatial Scale?” PS: Political Science & Politics, October 3, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096525101467.