In this paper, I jointly investigate the political and the economic e¤ects of immigration, and study the causes of anti-immigrant sentiments. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to US cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, and instrument immigrants'location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. I ...nd that immigration triggered hostile political reactions, such as the election of more conservative

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... higher support for anti-immigration legislation, and lower redistribution. Exploring the causes of natives'backlash, I document that immigration increased natives'employment, spurred industrial production, and did not generate losses even among natives working in highly exposed sectors. These ...ndings suggest that opposition to immigration was unlikely to have economic roots. Instead, I provide evidence that natives'political discontent was increasing in the cultural di¤erences between immigrants and natives. Results in this paper indicate that, even when diversity is economically bene...cial, it may nonetheless be socially hard to manage.