Computational analysis of 140 years of US political speeches reveals more positive but increasingly polarized framing of immigration

As a nation of immigrants, the United States has a complicated history of immigration that is both celebrated and deplored. Resistance to newcomers has been central to public discourse, but there has been a rise in pro-immigration attitudes over the past century. According to Gallup, 77% of Americans answered that immigration was a good thing in 2019, up from the lowest point of 52% in 2002. In the mid-1990s, 65% said that immigration should be decreased; in 2020, that number fell to just 28%. This comprehensive quantitative analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at how attitudes toward immigrants and political debates in the U.S. have changed over the last 140 years. The study analyzes 200,000 congressional speeches and 5,000 presidential communications related to immigration since 1880. It finds that political speech about immigration is now more positive, with a noticeable shift occurring between World War II and the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965. However, since the late 1970s, political parties have become increasingly polarized on the issue. Modern Republican speeches are as negative as congressional speeches from the 1920s, and are more likely to use metaphors such as “animals” and “cargo.” Nationality and geography also remain important factors in which immigrant groups are considered historically desirable (European) and undesirable (Chinese and Mexican) to U.S. politicians. (The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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