Beyond the Ballot: Immigration Attitudes and Everyday Allocative Behavior

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 04. Attitudes about immigrants/immigration

Abstract

Despite extensive research on public opinion toward immigration, it remains unclear when and how stated attitudes translate into behaviors that shape immigrant inclusion. Surveys often show broad endorsement of fair treatment and diversity, yet citizens also support restrictive policies and engage in exclusionary interpersonal behavior. This project addresses the resulting attitude–behavior gap by examining how immigration attitudes relate to charitable giving, an understudied but consequential form of everyday allocative behavior. We analyze two distinct but complementary outcomes: direct donations to immigrant individuals through GoFundMe campaigns and donation decisions to organizations whose missions range from humanitarian assistance to immigrant and minority rights advocacy. By comparing donations across behavioral contexts that vary in perceived deservingness, political meaning, and implications for group boundaries, this study provides a new test of economic threat, cultural boundary-making, and racialized group threat perspectives. It also examines whether emotions help explain when expressed orientations toward immigrants translate into material support, offering a potential mechanism for both divergence and alignment between attitudes and behavior. More broadly, the study clarifies when symbolic commitments to tolerance align (or diverge) with material support for immigrant inclusion as well as why.

Authors

• Muna Adem, University of Notre Dame

• Denise Ambriz, Pitzer College

• Manuel Rodriguez, University of Notre Dame