Experts Advisory: Brexit, Immigration, Presidential Race and Polls

The U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union had an immediate impact on global financial markets.

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 5, 2016) -- As world leaders and global financial markets grapple with the ramifications of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, questions linger as to how polls taken in the days leading up to the vote could have been so inaccurate.

The historic vote has also led to a series of new questions, such as how does ‘Brexit’ impact the U.S. Presidential Race? The vote to leave has been viewed as driven by concerns over immigration and sovereignty. Legal immigration in the U.K. is now 10 times what it was in 1993 according to the British Office of National Statistics.

Immigration reform has exposed a deep divide between U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump (left) and Hillary Clinton.

In the United States, the debate over immigration is at the forefront of the race for the Presidency, with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton calling for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump calling for a wall to be built between the U.S. and Mexico and to suspend immigration from countries with histories of terrorism.

UAlbany faculty experts can discuss the impact of ‘Brexit,’ immigration and polling on the U.S. presidential race.

Faculty experts include:

• Joel Bloom, research assistant professor, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy: Bloom’s research focuses on survey research methodology, including response rates, weighting and accuracy. He has published and presented research on media and politics, racism and American political psychology, and partisanship and elections. Bloom can discuss the inaccuracies of polling in the U.K. leading up to the Brexit vote, and what can be taking from current presidential polling in the U.S.
• Carl Bon Tempo, associate professor of history, College of Arts and Sciences: Bon Tempo is an expert on the history of refugees and immigrants in the U.S.; history of the U.S. and human rights; history of American foreign policy. He is the author of Americans at the Gate: The United States and Refugees during the Cold War (Princeton University Press, 2008), which explores how and why the U.S. admitted over four million refugees between 1945 and 2000. Bon Tempo can discuss how the current European refugee crisis compares to past immigration trends in the United States.
• Rey Koslowski, associate professor, Rockefeller College: Koslowski is an expert on international migration, human smuggling and trafficking, homeland security, border security and information technology. He is the author of Migrants and Citizens: Demographic Change in the European States System (2000); Real Challenges for Virtual Borders: The Implementation of US-VISIT (2005); and co-editor of Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives (2001). Koslowski can discuss the European immigration crisis, and how it has impacted the race for the the White House.
• Adrian Masters, professor of economics, College of Arts and Sciences: Masters is an expert in labor economics, macroeconomics, labor market policies, minimum wages, and unemployment. He has published extensively on job creation, international market equilibrium, and wage disparity. Masters can discuss the economic impact of the ‘Brexit’ vote on world economic markets.

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