Social Identity vs Relational Empathy as a Motivator to Help Immigrants in Detention

• In Event: 30260 - Joint Roundtables: Section on Social Psychology and Section on Sociology of Emotions
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3: Self and Identity

Abstract

In this paper I use data from interviews and participation in organizations that support immigrants who have been detained at two different detention centers, both of which are far from the U.S./Mexico border from which many of immigrants seeking asylum were transported. I show that people from immigrant families, particularly U.S.-born women who grew up as children of immigrants in Latino communities often highlight family experience with immigration enforcement as an important motivator. This may be coupled with a strong sense of identity as part of an immigrant community, but it is not at all clear that their volunteer work would happen in the absence of those emotionally salient experiences. Conversely, some non-immigrant Americans found their relationships and emotional bonds to people who were subject to immigration enforcement highly motivating in their decisions to care and advocate for immigrants in detention. The explanation that I find most convincing based on the data in this study, is that social identity matters, but often does so in the context of specific life experiences rooted in direct interpersonal relationships with people who the volunteers care for. Extension of self does not simply imply that we care for people who are *like us*, but also we are motivated to help those situated like the people we already care for.

Author

• Mark Igra, University of Washington