Professor Mary Hoopes Presents "The Asymmetry Effects of Migration Policy" -- UC Berkeley School of Law
Professor Mary S. Hoopes presented "The Asymmetry Effects of Migration Policy" at UC Berkeley School of Law on January 27. The presentation was part of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society Speaker Series.
From the Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society:
"The Asymmetry Effects of Migration Policy"
Drawing on over sixty interviews with migrants in eight shelters in Tijuana, Mexico City, and El Paso, we study the effects of frequently changing U.S. border policy in the early 2020s. We find an asymmetry: migrants were more likely to know of, and react to, new lawful pathways to enter the United States than new restrictions on asylum. In other words, policy changes were more successful at displacing migration than deterring it. In interviews, we learned several reasons for this asymmetry. Official information is not credible when negative—the U.S. government always tells migrants not to migrate—but is credible when positive. And positive announcements meant now was the time to migrate, but so did negative announcements—because things could get even worse. Asylum restrictions were typically complex, affecting some people but not others, but positive changes, such as new parole programs or CBPOne appointments, were relatively simple. Finally, the step-by-step nature of the long journey from Central America (or farther) to the U.S. border heightened the asymmetry: migrants tended to gain information about complex asylum restrictions over the course of their journey, as their incentives not to turn back mounted.