Era of mass migration: measuring immigration policy and re-examining thermostatic responsiveness

To what extent does a change in public opinion towards immigrants create a thermostatic response in legislative activity on immigration? In turn, how does legislative activity on immigration change public opinion? The policy responsiveness literature suggests that as public opinion shifts on a certain policy domain, the government responds accordingly. Specific work on immigration policy in the European context finds evidence of this thermostatic response, yet utilizes proxies for immigration policy – such as inflow of asylum seekers. Rather than immigration inflows, does legislative activity on immigration shape public opinion in a similar fashion? Consistent with the thermostatic responsiveness literature, I hypothesize that an increase in <i>supportive</i> legislative activity on immigration results in an increase in <i>negative</i> public attitudes towards immigration. Moreover, as restrictive public opinion towards immigration increases, I expect legislative activity on immigration to follow in the same direction. Utilizing public attitudes towards immigrants and the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) bills data, I develop a novel dataset that individually codes directionality of <i>proposed</i> immigration legislation across four European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. I find little evidence for negative public opinion responsiveness, but find weak support for immigration legislative activity responsiveness.