Issue Evolution and Public Opinion on Immigration.

This paper considers whether immigration is an issue that evolves, beginningin the 1990s. It is argued that whenever the immigrant population can be associ-ated with high costs, then policy entrepreneurs will start the evolution process bydwelling on the cost symbol. This idea is tested by comparing partisan polariza-tion for the entire United States, for the seven states that incurred a net deficit inspending on immigrants, and for California alone. As hypothesized, polarizationincreases the most in California, though not in a way that suggests issue evolution. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]