Research

Research Interests 

• Comparative Politics, Political Psychology, Political behavior

• Identity politics, Immigrant integration, Intergroup Relations, Europe

• Survey Research, Causal Inferences, Text-as-Data, Computational Social Science

Publications

1. Younghyun Lee and Nam-Kook Kim. 2019. ”Divergent Paths of Integration in the Post-Multicultural Era: Interculturalism in Spain and Civic Integration in France”. Journal of European Union Studies 53: 3-48. doi:10.18109/jeus.2019..53.3

Under Review

1. Seyoung Jung, Younghyun Lee, and Cara Wong. "What Can Dual Citizens Teach Us about Political Engagement?"

• R&R at Political Science Research and Methods 

• We compare US-born dual citizens to both naturalized-dual citizens and US-born mono citizens, which allows us to distinguish between the potential effects of socialization and the additional legal status. The study analyzes two large nationally representative samples, presenting the first look at dual citizens in the United States.

2. Younghyun Lee, Florencia Piñeyrúa, Christian Czymara, and Max Weber. "Linguistic Polarization in Minority Representation: Analyzing Parliamentary Speeches in Germany and the UK (1980 - 2021)".

• R&R for the edited volume on Computational Social Science of Social Cohesion and Polarization (forthcoming with Springer).

• We examine the representation of immigration and sexual minorities in parliamentary speeches across Germany and the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2021. We explore (1) how parties in both countries contributed to shifts in the overall salience of the two minority topics, (2) how language use differs between party groups when referring to these topics, and (3) how this evolved over time (linguistic polarization). 

3. Younghyun Lee. "Well-Integrated Immigrants Without a Sense of Belonging? Revisiting Integration Paradox and Successful Integration in Western Europe".

• Under Review 

• This study examines the relationship between immigrants' economic integration and their sense of belonging in European host societies. Using  the 2018 European Social Survey, I employ a three-step analytical approach to demonstrate the absence of a significant effect of economic integration on immigrants' sense of belonging. 

4. Younghyun Lee and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell. "Engaged but Targeted? How Immigrants Vote Against Anti-Immigrant Agendas in Europe".

• Under Review 

• We examine how immigrant voters respond to anti-immigrant parties and sentiments through their voting behavior. We test our arguments using a combined dataset of individual-level data from the European Social Survey and party-level data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey across 23 European countries (2018-2020).

Working Papers

1. Younghyun Lee and Antoine Bilodeau. "Cross-Ethnic Engagement and Political Integration of First-Generation Immigrants in Quebec".

• Using a survey conducted in 2019, this paper analyzes immigrants in the province of Quebec and shows that engaging in political activities with non-co-ethnic individuals fosters immigrant political integration by exposing immigrants to diverse perspectives, promoting a broader civic identity, and enhancing feelings of belonging and trust in the host society. 

2. Cara Wong and Younghyun Lee. "Is Six Degrees of Separation Five Too Many? The Limits of Indirect Contact"

• Intergroup interaction can reduce prejudice, but practical constraints limit direct contact, leading researchers to study indirect contact, such as knowing someone who knows an outgroup member. While social psychology meta-analyses suggest that indirect contact influences attitudes, political science research on military conscription questions its impact on political attitudes and behavior. This raises normative concerns about segregation and the need to understand why brief outgroup contact can be meaningful while long-term coexistence may have little effect.      

3. Heewon Yoon and Younghyun Lee. "Automation and Attitudes Towards Immigration".

• When does the substitution of labor from immigrants to robots occur? Immigration has been a salient topic in Western societies, with one of the key arguments for accepting immigrants being their potential to address labor and skill shortages. However, despite this practical rationale, negative perceptions of immigrants persist, driven by concerns about cultural and social threats. 

All papers can be shared upon request.