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Dilemmas in Representation: Immigration, Identity, and Political Parties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2025

Jeremiah Cha Open the ORCID record for Jeremiah Cha [Opens in a new window] ,
Justin Gest  and
Tom K. Wong
Jeremiah Cha*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Justin Gest
Affiliation:
Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, USA
Tom K. Wong
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Jeremiah Cha; Email: jeremiahcha@g.harvard.edu
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Abstract

As global migration continues to intensify, legislatures in liberal democracies increasingly feature policymakers with direct experiences with immigration. Concurrently, scholars often argue that electoral accountability creates incentives to appeal to public opinion, which in the context of immigration policymaking favors restrictions over admission. In this paper, we study these competing dynamics among these immigrant legislators. We theorize that political institutions—particularly political parties—impede the sincere expression of legislative preferences among legislators that come from immigrant backgrounds. To begin, we present stylized facts about legislative behavior drawing on roll-call votes from the Canadian, British, and American legislatures. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with representatives, we find strong evidence that the threat of political party sanction and individual concerns about legislators’ own parties affects legislative decision-making. These findings contribute to our understanding of legislative accountability and highlight how the trend of increasing immigration to democratic polities does not directly translate to political representation.

Keywords

MigrationLegislative PoliticsPolitical PartiesRepresentation

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , November 2025 , pp. 891 - 911
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

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