Opposition to Pro‐Immigrant Public Policy: Symbolic Racism and Group Threat

2012/10/10 by Justin Allen Berg · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Migration, Refugees, and Integration #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social and Intergroup Psychology

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1475-682x.2012.00437.x

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between symbolic racism and native‐born citizens’ policy opinions toward legal and undocumented immigration. With data from the 1994 G eneral S ocial S urvey and the NPR / K aiser F oundation/ K ennedy S chool of G overnment 2004 I mmigration S urvey, the results from logit regression models indicate that symbolic racism significantly predicts opposition to legal immigration, immigrant access to federal aid, and standard costs for college, citizenship for U . S .‐born children, and work permits for undocumented immigrants. The effects are independent of group threat and other factors. Symbolic racism explained more variation in policy opinions toward government assistance, while group threat explained more variation toward immigration levels and citizenship status. Depending on the issue, native‐born citizens likely derive their immigration policy opinions from moral ideologies in addition to intergroup competition.

Citations

• Educated Preferences: Explaining Attitudes Toward Immigration in Europe
• Prejudice as Group Position: Microfoundations of a Sociological Approach to Racism and Race Relations
• Economic Insecurity, Prejudicial Stereotypes, and Public Opinion on Immigration Policy
• “And Who Is My Neighbor?” Religion and Immigration Policy Attitudes
• Is It Really Racism?: The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies
• Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat: Population Composition and Anti-Immigrant and Racial Prejudice in Europe

Cited by

• Ambivalent, biological, and cultural racism and the legitimation of inequality: Original cross-national survey evidence from the United States and The Netherlands
• Differentiated Threat and Religious Dominance: The Distinct Dynamics of Xenophobia and Islamophobia in the United States

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