Attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants, authorized immigrants, and refugees.

Abstract

Rates of human migration are steadily rising and have resulted in significant sociopolitical debates over how to best respond to increasing cultural diversity and changing migration patterns. Research on prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants has focused on the attitudes and beliefs that individuals in the receiving country hold about immigrants. The current study enhances this literature by examining how young adults view authorized and unauthorized immigrants and refugees. Using a between-groups design of 191 undergraduates, we found that participants consistently reported more prejudicial attitudes, greater perceived realistic threats, and greater intergroup anxiety when responding to questions about unauthorized compared with authorized immigrants. Additionally, there were differences in attitudes depending on participants' generational status, with older-generation participants reporting greater perceived realistic and symbolic threat, prejudice, and anxiety than newer-generation students. In some instances, these effects were moderated by participant race/ethnicity and whether they were evaluating authorized or unauthorized immigrants. Lastly, perceived realistic threat, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety were significant predictors of prejudicial attitudes. Overall, participants reported positive attitudes toward refugees and resettlement programs in the United States. These findings have implications for future research and interventions focused on immigration and prejudice toward migrant groups.

Attitudes towards Immigrant Workers and Asylum Seekers in Eastern Croatia: Dimensions, Determinants and Differences

“…individual can express towards newcomers who are perceived as competitors for different, mainly economic and social, resources and advantages, opportunities and services (see also Banovac and Boneta, 2006;Murray and Marx, 2013;Strabac, Aalberg and Valenta, 2014).…”

Populist Upheavals: What can we do?

“…The persistence of such attitudes is detrimental to the state of public mental health. The polarity of views and acts of aggression against immigrants or even all foreigners cause anxiety, identity and even personality disorders [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. This obstructs social and economic development [39].…”

Public perception does not accurately reflect resources available to survivors of torture in the United States

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