(iPoster) Latinx-in-Context: The Effects of Restrictive Immigration Framing on Latinx Pro-Immigrant Policy Support

• In Event: Poster Session: Ralph Bunche Summer Institute (RBSI) Scholars

Abstract

Acculturation among Latinx individuals is often framed as a binary process—adopting American identity at the expense of Latinx values and community ties. This perspective overlooks the complex, context-dependent navigation of identity. Drawing on segmented assimilation and social identity theories, I conceptualize acculturation as a gradient, multifaceted experience in which Latinx and American identities coexist and interact, with language and intergenerational experience equally central. To empirically investigate the mechanisms underlying the activation of American and Latinx identities, I designed an original survey experiment in which Latinx respondents were randomly assigned to either a control or treatment condition. This design enables a rigorous examination of whether American and Latino identification operate as truly binary constructs, or if they exist along a continuum of centrality and salience. Specifically, I assessed how the centrality of American and Latinx identities influenced respondents’ support for a range of pro-immigrant policies when confronted with elite-level anti-immigration rhetoric. My findings indicate that, across all experimental conditions and levels of acculturation, the centrality of American identity predicted decreased support for pro-immigrant policies, while Latinx identity centrality was associated with increased support. When exposed to anti-immigration rhetoric, highly acculturated individuals did not exhibit a significant shift toward anti-immigrant preferences, and those with lower levels of acculturation demonstrated a marginally significant increase in support for pro-immigrant policies.

Author

• Luis Xavier Guaman, Princeton University