Does technological change shape immigration policy in the United States? I argue that if technological change is complementary to manual tasks, e.g. automation, it increases competition between natives and immigrants. In turn, this causes a more restrictive immigration policy. Technological...

Did recent technological change, in the form of automation, affect immigration policy in the United States? I argue that as automation shifted employment from routine to manual occupations at the bottom end of the skill distribution, it increased competition between natives and immigrants,...