Native-born vs. Immigrant as a Status Factor: Recent Cross-cultural Experimental Evidence

• In Event: 123 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions and Section on Sociology of Mental Health).
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Immigration and Acculturation

Abstract

Several social attributes carry status value for many people, depending on the social system under examination and the individual acceptance of such association. That status value, in turn, often translates into competence expectations. The status characteristics and expectation states research program is a widely recognized, empirically grounded theory in this area. Work stemming from this program has analyzed the status value of attributes such as gender, ethnicity/ race, and physical attractiveness in a wide variety of settings and population samples, and has identified the conditions under which that value is activated. In this paper I propose that native-born vs. immigrant is often also such a status factor. I review 19 immigration-related experiments published in well-recognized sociological and social-psychological academic journals between 2000 and 2015, and assess and systematize the findings. These support the conceptualization that I propose here of native-born/immigrant as a status factor.

Author

• Martha Foschi, University of British Columbia