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Title: The Resurgence of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in Contemporary America: The Significance of Race and Religion

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2006

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Abstract: After examining different public opinion poll data, Lapinski et al. (1997) reported that anti-immigration attitude had experienced resurgence in recent years. Similarly, George J. Snchez (1997) has examined the rise of nativism directed toward Asian and Latino immigrants with a focus on the Los Angles riots and other evidence, and he attributes the rise of anti-immigrant feelings to nativism. Research also indicates that rising nativism may be effected by race and religion. For example, compared to whites, Jeff Diamond (1998) finds that blacks are more likely to be liberal with respect to immigration policy, but they tend to be more restrictionistic when the issue is economic cost. While research on contemporary nativism has rarely examined the role religion plays, religion was one of the foci in important studies of previous anti-immigration sentiment in the United States, which concluded that such anti-immigrant sentiments, including anti-Roman Catholic sentiment, was mainly held by some Evangelical Protestants (e.g. Higham 1955, 1999). Our primary data source is the American Mosiac Project (AMP) survey data. AMP is a multi-year, multi-method study of the bases of solidarity and diversity in America, based out of the University of Minnesotas sociology department. The survey data comes from a random-digit-dial telephone survey (N=2,081) conducted during the summer of 2003. We adopt four dependent variable measures along four dimensions of immigrant incorporation (or resistance to immigrant incorporation) to American society: Ideological, Policy-Orientated, Language, and Economic Costs. We utilize methods of cross tabulations with chi-square tests, ordinal regression and binary logistic regression analyses. We propose that AMP survey data allows us to investigate claims of resurgent nativism in two ways how both race and religion affect peoples attitude toward immigrants and immigration. We propose that the attitudes towards immigrants and immigration may vary across different groups by race and religion. However, we propose that the general trend toward high levels of anti-immigrant sentiment among the general American public will pervade.

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Authors: Pendaz, Sadie; Zhang, Xuefeng

Conference Name: Midwest Sociological Society

Publisher Location: Omaha, NE

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Other, Race and Ethnicity

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