Enemy of the State? Race, Geopolitical Threat, and Attitudes toward Immigrants

• In Event: The Effects of Framing, Media, and Rhetoric on Immigration Attitudes

Abstract

Race and immigration have been deeply intertwined throughout American history. From the Naturalization Act of 1790 to anti-immigrant sentiment today, white immigrants have been perceived by many native-born Americans as more desirable than immigrants of color. These sentiments have been magnified by negative media narratives about specific ethnic and religious groups in the wake of major geopolitical events (Muslims after 9/11, Chinese-Americans and other Asian-Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic). In this paper, we examine Americans' attitudes toward both white and non-white immigrants from sending countries seen as geopolitical threats to the US. To what degree does whiteness protect immigrants from "adversarial" countries from anti-immigrant attitudes?

Using a conjoint experiment, we examine the perceived desirability of immigrants from a number of white (Germany, France, Poland, and Russia) and non-white (Mexico, Venezuela, China, Iraq) sending countries. We find that respondents were least likely to admit immigrants from three countries that are seen to have an adversarial relationship with the US: China, Iraq, and Russia. Of these three ethnic groups, attitudes toward Russian immigrants were by far the most negative.

These patterns of ethnic preference differed dramatically by partisanship. Republicans were substantially less likely to admit Chinese and Iraqi immigrants (but not Russian immigrants), and Democrats were much less likely to admit Russian immigrants (but not Chinese or Iraqi immigrants). Partisan differences in perceptions of sending countries are also reflected in partisans’ responses to open-ended questions about each ethnic group – when asked about Russian immigration, Democrats were twice as likely as Republicans to mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A survey experiment confirms that priming partisanship substantially magnifies these effects.

These findings suggest that whiteness does not confer immunity from the effects of negative narratives about specific ethnic groups.

Authors

• Masha T Krupenkin, Boston College

• Dominik Andrzej Stecula, The Ohio State University