Immigration and environmental emissions: A US county-level analysis

This paper investigates the immigration-environment association using U.S. county-level data, for a subset of counties (N = similar to 200), and a model inspired by the STIRPAT approach. The analysis makes use of U.S. census data for the year 2000 reflecting U.S.-born and foreign-born populations, combined with county-level data reflecting emissions of CO2, NO2, PM10, and SO2. With a focus on approximately 200 primarily urban counties for which complete data are available, and after controlling for income, employment in the utilities and manufacturing sectors, and coal consumption for SO2 estimations, few statistically significant associations emerge between population composition and emissions. Counties with a relatively larger U.S.-born population have higher NO2 and SO2 emissions. On the other hand, counties with a relatively higher number or share of foreign-born residents have lower SO2 emissions. Although limited to cross-sectional analyses, the results provide a foundation for future longitudinal research on this important and controversial topic.