“Who Blames the Immigrants? Internalizing and Resisting Neocolonial Immigration Logics of Economic Precarity”

• In Event: Latinx Politics in the Neocolonial Era

Abstract

Economic inequality has increased dramatically in the US over the past two decades, leading many in the aspiring middle class to feel economically unstable. At the same time, international migration has increased diversity across the US, including in traditional gateway communities like California (Batalova, 2024). To be sure, neocolonial immigration logics have sought to link the two trends in American’s minds. Those on the right assert that immigration itself has caused economic instability and shrinking opportunities for all, including the middle class. They perpetuate claims that immigrants lower wages, compete for “American” jobs, and drain public coffers in ways that lead, somehow, to shrinking opportunities for social mobility. And while much research casts doubt on this rendering, we still know little about whether feelings of economic anxiety have become tethered to immigrant sentiment, and how this relationship might be mediated by intersecting axes of Latinidad. Drawing on a novel data set collected in California (CA), this paper examines the relationship between felt economic anxiety and attitudes about immigrant worthiness and belonging among Latinos, White, Black, and Asian registered voters. Specifically, we ask how factors like political party, class and gender might influence the relationship, and we find that Latinas are large outliers. That is, while perceived economic anxiety is highly tethered to anti-immigrant sentiment–mirroring dominant messages on the right–among all groups, that relationship is non-significant among Latinas, even when other factors are accounted for. Understanding the relationship between economic well-being and immigrant sentiment is important because the broader cultural context ultimately influences immigrants' sense of belonging and well-being. In fact, much research shows that immigrants living in areas with high levels of anti-immigrant sentiment have higher health and economic challenges and display greater rates of anxiety and feelings of social alienation (Ocampo, 2024). A better understanding of the factors associated with anti-immigrant sentiment among all groups and the role that gender plays, particularly within the Latino community, can help policymakers target interventions that foster connections, address issues of misinformation, and generate better opportunities for cross-cultural learning.

Authors

• Nicholas Vargas, University of California, Berkeley

• G. Cristina Mora, UC Berkeley

• Julio Salas