The study of immigration has received a lot of attention as a consequence of the increased political salience of the topic. Much of recent work has focused on attitudes toward admission policies or support for welfare for immigrants. Most of these studies examine such preferences in European countries and the United States. In this paper, we expand the existing literature in two ways. First, we explore preferences in Latin America, focusing on Brazil, the largest country in the region, and where the influx of immigrants is growing. We compare Brazil to the United States. Immigration has become a pressing issue in Latin America, as the flow of people to countries outside the region has reduced since the 2000s while immigration within the region has increased. Escalating violence and political and economic instability in countries like Venezuela have forced people to be displaced to neighboring countries, triggering diverse responses from governments and citizens alike.
Second, we investigate attitudes toward the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Who supports deportation? Which interventions can contrast negative attitudes? We combine analysis of existing survey data with original experiments to explore how the socio-economic and political context in which individuals live and the immigration policies adopted by governments affect attitudes. Moreover, we examine how natives of the receiving country develop preferences on deportation depending on various factors such as the part of the country where they live as well as the origin of immigrants.