Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:42:30.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - The Political Dynamics of Immigration Opinion Worldwide

from Part II - The Politics of Intergroup Attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2022

By
Nicholas A. Valentino  and
Yunsieg P. Kim
Edited by
Danny Osborne  and
Chris G. Sibley
Danny Osborne
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Chris G. Sibley
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Get access

Summary

Research exploring public opinion dynamics in the domain of immigration has exploded in recent decades, and for obvious reasons. Policy debates in developed democracies have intensified as barriers to movement fell in Europe and the USA and as populist leaders began to capitalise on, if not stoke, public anxieties about the influx of newcomers. A central question is why some individuals are so much more willing than others to allow immigrants into their country, and the debate has centred primarily around real economic consequences versus deep-rooted group identities and animosities. Given all the welcome attention to this fundamental question, we can only review a small slice of this burgeoning literature. To these ends, we provide a broad overview of the impact of real immigration contexts, economic versus symbolic group attachments, and the role of the media and elites may play in triggering either or both forces by triggering powerful emotions. Since these explanations are so difficult to causally untangle, and since the literature has focused so much on the USA and a few other countries, we pay special attention to recent, comparative research that goes beyond simple observational designs.

Keywords

ImmigrationEconomic threatEthnocentrismMediaEmotions
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Political Psychology , pp. 329 - 345
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aarøe, L., Petersen, M. B., & Arceneaux, K. (2017). The behavioral immune system shapes political intuitions: Why and how individual differences in disgust sensitivity underlie opposition to immigration. American Political Science Review, 111(2), 277–294.Google Scholar
Abrajano, M., & Hajnal, Z. L. (2015). White backlash: Immigration, race, and American politics. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Harper.Google Scholar
Alba, R., Rumbau, R. G., & Marotz, K. (2005). A distorted nation: Perceptions of racial/ethnic group sizes and attitudes toward immigrants and other minorities. Social Forces, 84(2), 901–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertson, B., & Gadarian, S. K. (2015). Anxious politics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Amengay, A., & Stockemer, D. (2019). The radical right in western Europe: A meta-analysis of structural factors. Political Studies Review, 17(1), 30–40.Google Scholar
Arzheimer, K. (2009). Contextual factors and the extreme right vote in Western Europe, 1980–2002. American Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 259–275.Google Scholar
Banks, A. J. (2016). Are group cues necessary? How anger makes ethnocentrism among whites a stronger predictor of racial and immigration policy opinions. Political Behavior, 38(3), 635–657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brader, T., Valentino, N. A., & Suhay, E. (2008). What triggers public opposition to immigration? Anxiety, group cues, and immigration threat. American Journal of Political Science, 52(4), 959–978.Google Scholar
Burns, P., & Gimpel, J. G. (2000). Economic insecurity, prejudicial stereotypes, and public opinion in immigration policy. Political Science Quarterly, 115(2), 201–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavaille, C., & Marshall, J. (2019). Education and anti-immigration attitudes: Evidence from compulsory schooling reforms across Western Europe. American Political Science Review, 113(1), 254–263.Google Scholar
Ceobanu, A. M., & Escandell, X. (2010). Comparative analyses of public attitudes toward immigrants and immigration using multinational survey data: A review of theories and research. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 309–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez, L. R. (2008). The Latino threat: Constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Cisneros, J. D. (2008). Contaminated communities: The metaphor of ‘immigrant as pollutant’ in media representations of immigration. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 11(4), 569–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, J., Green, D., Muste, C., & Wong, C. (1997). Public opinion toward immigration reform: The role of economic motivations. Journal of Politics, 59(3), 858–881.Google Scholar
Clark, J. A., & Legge, J. S. Jr. (2009). Economics, racism, and attitudes toward immigration in the New Germany. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 901–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, M. A., & Richeson, J. A. (2014). On the precipice of a ‘majority-minority’ America: Perceived status threat from the racial demographic shift affects white Americans’ political ideology. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1189–1197.Google Scholar
Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enos, R. D. (2014). Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(10), 3699–3704.Google Scholar
Farris, E. M., & Mohamed, H. S. (2018). Picturing immigration: How the media criminalizes immigrants. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 6(4), 814–824.Google Scholar
Feldman, S. (2003). Enforcing social conformity: A theory of authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 24(1), 41–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedberg, R. M., & Hunt, J. (1995). The impact of immigration on host country wages, employment, and growth. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2), 23–44.Google Scholar
Gadarian, S. K., & Albertson, B. (2014). Anxiety, immigration, and the search for information. Political Psychology, 35(2), 133–164.Google Scholar
Garand, J. C., Xu, P., & Davis, B. C. (2017). Immigration attitudes and support for the welfare state in the American mass public. American Journal of Political Science, 61(1), 146–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, E. G. T., & Staerklé, C. (2013). Migration and multiculturalism. In Huddy, L., Sears, D. O., & Levy, J. S. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political psychology (2nd ed., pp. 852–889). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gutierrez, A. E., Ocampo, A. X., Barreto, M. A., & Segura, G. (2019). Somos m’as: How racial threat and anger mobilized Latino voters in the Trump era. Political Research Quarterly, 72(4), 960–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, J., Hangartner, D., & Pietrantuono, G. (2017). Catalyst or crown: Does naturalization promote the long-term social integration of immigrants? American Political Science Review, 111(2), 256–276.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, J., & Hiscox, M. H. (2007). Educated preferences: Explaining attitudes towards immigration in Europe. International Organization, 61(2), 399–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, J., & Hiscox, M. H. (2010). Attitudes toward highly skilled and low-skilled immigration: Evidence from a survey experiment. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 61–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, J., & Hopkins, D. H. (2014). Public attitudes toward immigration. Annual Review of Political Science, 17, 225–249.Google Scholar
Hainmueller, J., & Hopkins, D. H. (2015). The hidden American immigration consensus: A conjoint analysis of attitudes toward immigrants. American Journal of Political Science, 59(3), 529–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, G. H. (2005). Why does immigration divide America? Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Hanson, G. H., Scheve, K. F., & Slaughter, M. J. (2007). Public finance and individual preferences over globalization strategies. Economics and Politics, 19(1), 1–33.Google Scholar
Hartman, T K., Newman, B. J., & Bell, C. S. (2014). Decoding prejudice toward Hispanics: Group cues and public reactions to threatening immigrant behavior. Political Behavior, 36(1), 143–163.Google Scholar
Herda, D. (2010). How many immigrants? Foreign-born population innumeracy in Europe. Public Opinion Quarterly, 74(4), 674–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, M. V., & Morris, I. L. (1998). Give us your tired, your poor,… but make sure they have a green card: The effects of documented and undocumented migrant context on Anglo opinion toward immigration. Political Behavior, 20(1), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D. J. (2010). Politicized places: Explaining where and when immigrants provoke opposition. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 40–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D. J. (2015). The upside of accents: Language, skin tone, and attitudes toward immigration. British Journal of Political Science, 45(3), 531–557.Google Scholar
Iyengar, S., Jackman, S., Messing, S., et al. (2013). Do attitudes about immigration predict willingness to admit individual immigrants? A cross-national test of the person-positivity bias. Public Opinion Quarterly, 77(3), 641–665.Google Scholar
Jardina, A. (2019). White identity politics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, C. D., Newman, B. J., & Velez, Y. (2015). Ethnic change, personality, and polarization over immigration in the American public. Public Opinion Quarterly, 79(3), 662–686.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T., Stern, C., Rule, N. O., & Sterling, J. (2017). The politics of fear: Is there an ideological asymmetry in existential motivation? Social Cognition, 35(4), 324–353.Google Scholar
Kam, C. D., & Estes, B. A. (2016). Disgust sensitivity and public demand for protection. The Journal of Politics, 78(2), 481–496.Google Scholar
Kinder, D. R., & Kam, C. D. (2010). Us against them: Ethnocentric foundations of American public opinion. The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, D. R., & Kiewiet, D. R. (1981). Sociotropic politics: The American case. British Journal of Political Science, 11(2), 129–161.Google Scholar
Knoll, B. R., Redlawsk, D. P., & Sanborn, H. (2011). Framing labels and immigration policy attitudes in the Iowa caucuses: ‘Trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo’. Political Behavior, 33(3), 433–454.Google Scholar
Konitzer, T. B., Iyengar, S., Valentino, N. A., Soroka, S., & Duch, R. (2019). Ethnocentrism versus group specific stereotyping in immigration opinion: Cross-national evidence on the distinctiveness of Muslim immigrants. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(7), 1051–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, P., & Obstfeld, M. (2000). International economics: Theory & policy (5th ed.). Addison-Wesley Longman.Google Scholar
Levy, M., & Wright, M. (2020). Immigration and the American ethos. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liao, S., Malhotra, N., & Newman, B. J. (2020). Providing local economic benefits increases positivity toward immigrants: Evidence from an exogenous influx of Chinese foreign capital. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 481–488.Google Scholar
Light, M. T., He, J., & Robey, J. (2020). Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 117(51), 32340–32347.Google Scholar
Malhotra, N., Margalit, Y., & Mo, C. H. (2013). Economic explanations for opposition to immigration: Distinguishing between prevalence and conditional impact. American Journal of Political Science, 57(2), 391–410.Google Scholar
Marcus, G. E., Neuman, W. R., & MacKuen, M. (2000). Affective intelligence and political judgment. The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mastro, D., Tukachinsky, R., Behm-Morawitz, E., & Blecha, E. (2014). News coverage of immigration: The influence of exposure to linguistic bias in the news on consumer’s racial/ethnic cognitions. Communication Quarterly, 62(2), 135–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masuoka, N., & Junn, J. (2013). The politics of belonging: Race, public opinion, and immigration. The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mayda, A. M. (2006). Who is against immigration? A cross-country investigation of attitudes towards immigrants. Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(3), 510–530.Google Scholar
McIlwain, C., & Caliendo, S. M. (2011). Race appeals: How candidates invoke race in U.S. political campaigns. Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Mohamed, H. S., & Farris, E. M. (2020). ‘Bad hombres’? An examination of identities in U.S. media coverage of immigration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(1), 158–176.Google Scholar
Newman, B. J. (2015). Unfamiliar others: Contact with unassimilated immigrants and public support for restrictive immigration policy. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 27(2), 197–219.Google Scholar
Newman, B. J., Hartman, T. K., Lown, P. L., & Feldman, S. (2015). Easing the heavy hand: Humanitarian concern, empathy, and opinion on immigration. British Journal of Political Science, 45(3), 583–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, B. J., & Malhotra, N. (2019). Economic reasoning with a racial hue: Is the immigration consensus purely race neutral? Journal of Politics¸ 81(1), 153–166.Google Scholar
Ocampo, A. N., & Ocampo, A. X. (2020). Disaggregating the Latina/o/x ‘umbrella’: The political attitudes of U.S. Colombians. Latino Studies, 18(3), 390–419.Google Scholar
Ocampo, A. X., Dana, K., & Barreto, M. A. (2018). The American Muslim voter: Community belonging and political participation. Social Science Research, 72, 84–99.Google Scholar
Ostfeld, M. (2017). The backyard politics of attitudes toward immigration. Political Psychology, 38(1), 21–37.Google Scholar
Ottaviano, G., & Peri, G. (2008). Immigration and national wages: Clarifying the theory and the empirics. NBER Working Paper 14188.Google Scholar
Pape, R. A. (2021, 6 April). Opinion: What an analysis of 377 Americans arrested or charged in the Capitol insurrection tells us. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/06/capitol-insurrection-arrests-cpost-analysis/Google Scholar
Parker, C. S., & Barreto, M. A. (2013). Change they can’t believe in: The Tea Party and reactionary politics in America. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pérez, E. O. (2010). Explicit evidence on the import of implicit attitudes: The IAT and immigration policy judgments. Political Behavior, 32(4), 517–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peri, G., & Yasenov, V. (2019). The labor market effects of a refugee wave synthetic control method meets the Mariel boatlift. Journal of Human Resources, 54(2), 267–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quillian, L. (1995). Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: Population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review, 60(4), 586–612.Google Scholar
Ramsay, J. E., & Pang, J. S. (2017). Anti‐immigrant prejudice in rising East Asia: A stereotype content and integrated threat analysis. Political Psychology, 38(2), 227–244.Google Scholar
Reny, T. T., Valenzuela, A. A., & Collingwood, L. (2020). ‘No, you’re playing the race card’: Testing the effects of anti-Black, anti-Latino, and anti-immigrant appeals in the post-Obama era. Political Psychology, 41(2), 283–302.Google Scholar
Scheve, K. F., & Slaughter, M. J. (2001). Labor market competition and individual preferences over immigration policy. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 83(1), 133–145.Google Scholar
Sides, J., & Citrin, J. (2007). European opinion about immigration: The role of identities, interests and information. British Journal of Political Science, 37(3), 477–504.Google Scholar
Sirin, C. V., Valentino, N. A., & Villalobos, J. D. (2021). Seeing us in them: Social divisions and the politics of group empathy. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, J. P., & Edmonston, B. (Eds.). (1997). The new Americans: Economic, demographic, and fiscal effects of immigration. National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Valentino, N. A., Brader, T., & Jardina, A. E. (2013). The antecedents of immigration opinion among U.S. whites: Media group priming versus general ethnocentrism? Political Psychology, 34(2), 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, N. A., Neuner, F. G., & Vandenbroek, L. M. (2018). The changing norms of racial political rhetoric and the end of racial priming. Journal of Politics, 80(3), 757–771.Google Scholar
Valentino, N. A., Soroka, S., Iyengar, S., et al. (2019). Economic and cultural drivers of immigrant support worldwide. British Journal of Political Science, 49(4), 1201–1226.Google Scholar
Vasilopoulos, P., McAvay, H., & Brouard, S. (2021). Residential context and voting for the far right: The impact of immigration and unemployment on the 2017 presidential election. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109–021-09676-zGoogle Scholar
Vollhardt, J., Bilewicz, M., & Olechowski, M. (2015). Victims under siege: Lessons for Polish–Jewish relations and beyond. In Halperin, E. & Sharvit, K. (Eds.), The social psychology of intractable conflicts (Peace Psychology Book Series, Vol. 27, pp. 75–87). Springer.Google Scholar
Wong, C. (2010). Boundaries of obligation: Geographic, racial, and national communities. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zhirkov, K. (2021). Who are ‘the immigrants’? Beliefs about immigrant populations and anti-immigration attitudes in the United States and Britain. Social Science Quarterly, 102(1), 228–237.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×