National Attachment in the Nation of Immigrants: Race and Immigration Attitudes

• In Event: Immigration and Politics

Abstract

This study investigates how racial identity mediates the relationship between feelings of national attachment and immigration attitudes. While previous work has shown how certain forms of national attachment can make Americans more or less welcoming toward immigrants, few works have explored how racial identities may differentially shape national attachment and impact views of immigrants and migration. Since racial and ethnic minorities may develop more expansive and complicated versions of American national identity compared to Whites, we ask how this might then later inform their views of immigration. We begin the paper with a review of the literature of the multiple forms of nationalism and nativism. We will then investigate whether national attachment’s effect on views of immigrants and immigration reform may be moderated by racial differences. To do so, we analyze 2014 General Social Survey (GSS), a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. We find opposing immigration views between “arriving” Latino and “receiving” Black and White populations. As supportive views by Latinos remain relatively constant, we observe that protective (National Identity) or vigilant (Nationalism) regards for this country were mostly sources of opposition among Whites, while satisfaction in it (National Pride) conjured supportiveness ahead of the 2016 Presidential Election. Further, we isolate the restrictive effect of nationalism and support aspects of national pride to densely populated areas, suggesting that the battle over immigration is taking place in urban environments.

Authors

• Joe Roberto Tafoya, DePaul University

• Alvaro Jose Corral, The College of Wooster

• David L. Leal, University of Texas at Austin