Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

International Migration Studies

Advisor

Richard E. Ocejo

Subject Categories

Migration Studies | Public Policy

Keywords

immigration-related webpages, state government, reception, e-government, bureaucratic orientation, language accessibility

Abstract

American state governments occupy unique political roles when it comes to critical public-facing policy areas like education, health, transportation, and commerce, and therefore they administer many public services and benefits that affect immigrants and their communities. This study expands the existing knowledge of the ways in which U.S. state governments digitally engage with their immigrant populations, doing so through a landscape analysis that maps the information and resources provided for and about immigrant communities on 413 immigration-related webpages across all 50 U.S. state governments’ official websites. Data was collected in four categories for each webpage: its bureaucratic orientation, the government agency of origin, its form of address for immigrants, and its level of language accessibility. The majority of all states’ immigration-related webpages were found to have a service-oriented bureaucratic orientation and were housed on the websites of states’ education, commerce, health, and social services departments. Partisan divides between Republican and Democratic-led state governments were evident in the categories of bureaucratic orientation and government agency of origin, but not in webpages’ form of address of immigrants or language accessibility, as the majority of all states’ webpages show a lack of advancement in these two latter categories. This study’s results serve as a foundation for future research into the causal factors behind the observed trends, as well as a tool for state government officials and civil society immigrant advocates to utilize when aiming to strengthen and/or refine digital environments that address immigrant communities.

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