Support for Tough Immigration Policy: Identity Defense or Concern for Law and Order?

Abstract

Across two studies, U.S. participants read a fictional transcript of a law enforcement officer who observed a speeding infraction and made a discretionary traffic stop. The car carried occupants who displayed either high or low fit with Anglocentric constructions of U.S. identity and were of presumptive Mexican (Studies 1 and 2), Canadian (Study 1), or Irish (Study 2) origin. The officer decided over the course of the traffic stop that the occupants' behavior aroused "reasonable suspicion" about documentation status, so he asked them to produce identification documents and detained them when they failed to do so. Participants indicated their suspicion about occupants' documentation status and rated the appropriateness of law enforcement actions. Results indicate effects of origin across both studies for all outcomes: participants considered occupants of Mexican origin (vs. Canadian or Irish) as more suspicious, and rated law enforcement actions related to traffic and immigration violations as more appropriate when the interaction

Identity Inclusiveness and Centrality: Investigating Identity Correlates of Attitudes toward Immigrants and Immigration Policies

“…Thus, the negative relation between centrality of one's identity and attitudes toward immigrants found in this study is likely dependent on individuals’ psychological representations of citizenship. This reasoning is consistent with experimental evidence showing stronger support for punitive law enforcement actions when immigrants are perceived as not culturally fitting with the national identity (Mukherjee, Adams, & Molina, ). Accordingly, the content of national identity can be an important factor in understanding the link between ingroup national identification and attitudes toward immigrants.…”

“Threatening Others”: National Identity and Group Threats Predict Immigration Policy

“…In the former case, the perception that immigrants are “taking away jobs” or a burden on limited resources (e.g., social welfare) predicts stronger stances on immigration as a function of a perceived “zero sum” relationship tied to perceived realistic group conflict (see Esses, Dovidio, Jackson, & Armstrong, 2001). The case of symbolic threats suggests that individuals care about the threat that immigrants pose to constructions of U.S. identity such that immigrants “change the meaning” of what it means to be “American” (see Danbold & Huo, 2015; Mukherjee, Adams, & Molina, 2018). The present research included these two group threats in order to examine how they relate to different forms of national identity and whether one or both are critical to understanding stances on immigration policy.…”

Gay Asian Americans Are Seen as More American Than Asian Americans Who Are Presumed Straight

“…Historically, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Arab Americans have faced civic, economic, and social exclusion on the basis of their perceived foreignness (Ancheta, 2006; Ngai, 2004). In the modern-day political climate, they continue to be targeted by foreignness-based prejudice and discrimination in the United States (Handron et al, 2017; Mukherjee, Adams, & Molina, 2018; Panagopoulos, 2006; Yogeeswaran & Dasgupta, 2010).…”