The Politics of High-Skilled Immigration

This dissertation examines how firms, individual citizens, and policymakers respond to high-skilled immigration. Although many economies are racing to attract skilled foreign workers, it is difficult to implement immigration policies that satisfy the need for skilled workforce and garner public support. This dissertation identifies why it has been challenging to develop and implement high-skilled immigration policy by examining the sources of support for or opposition to high-skilled immigration policy at the individual, firm, and policymaker levels. The first chapter investigates whether tech firms prefer skilled foreign workers over native workers. This chapter aims to test the implicit assumption that foreign nationals have equal standing as native workers in the labor market, thus potentially displacing native workers. The second chapter focuses on the attitudes of individual citizens toward high-skilled immigration. This chapter examines whether and how information about high-skilled immigration affects native citizens’ attitudes toward high-skilled immigration. The third chapter explores the factors that affect high-skilled immigration policymaking. Specifically, this chapter examines under what conditions, business demand plays a crucial role in influencing policymakers’ decisions to support high-skilled immigration policy