Public views on trade and immigration

[Dan '82]

The GSS has at time asked people for their view on trade and in most years it asks people about their views on immigration.  From the 2014 GSS here’s how people view immigration based on their views on trade:




 
As you can see the more restrictive trade policies people favor the more likely they are to support immigration restrictions. Ignore disagree strongly the sample size is too small.   While amongst political commentators and intellectuals opposition to free trade is correlated with less restrictive immigration, the opposite is true among the general public.

Here is overall opinion on immigration in 2014




And here is overall opinion on trade:




Trumps view's on trade and immigration represent the views of a many of Americans but are unpopular with the political class.