Who are the “Illegals”? The Social Construction of Illegality in the United States

Abstract

Immigration scholars have increasingly questioned the idea that "illegality" is a fixed, inherent condition. Instead, the new consensus is that immigration laws produce "illegality." But can "illegality" be socially constructed? When initially judging who is an "illegal immigrant," common observers and even authorities typically do not rely on an individual's documentation. Instead, people rely on shared stereotypes to assign "illegality" to certain bodies, a condition we refer to as "social illegality." Ethnographers have documented that individual traits like occupation or national-origin may trigger illegality suspicions, but it is not clear how widespread these stereotypes are, or whether all stereotypes are equally consequential. To address this question, we examine the personal attributes shaping perceived "illegality." We apply a paired conjoint survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of 1,515 non-Hispanic white U.S. adults to assess the independent effect of each dimension. We find that national origin, social class, and criminal background powerfully shape perceptions of illegality. These findings reveal a new source of ethnic-based inequalities-"social illegality"that may potentially increase law enforcement scrutiny and influence the decisions of hiring managers, landlords, teachers, and other members of the public.

Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex

“…S5 and S7. The meaning of race, age, and gender for police violence emerges in the interactions between how officers perceive an individual's identity and the salience of these classifications for perceptions of criminality, belonging, and dangerousness (1,10,25,39). Future work should closely consider how place, race, gender, age, social class, and disability intersectionally structure exposure to violence (26).…”

“…Latino men are also more likely to be killed by police than are white men. estimate that over the life course, at levels of risk similar to those observed between 2013 and 2018, about 52 [39,68] (90% uncertainty interval) of every 100,000 men and boys in the United States will be killed by police use of force over the life course, and about 3 [1.5, 4.5] of every 100,000 women and girls will be killed by police over the life course. Fig.…”

From ‘having’ to ‘being’: self‐worth and the current crisis of American society

“…Figure shows that after a period of steady growth in warmth towards Hispanics for all groups, a downturn less acute than for blacks took place among Republicans (with a decline from 66 to 63 per cent average warmth ratings between 2008 and 2016), while growth in warmth towards Hispanics continued at a similar pace among Democrats (Figure ). As argued by Flores and Schachter (), Hispanics are often presumed to be ‘illegal’ and to take advantage of public resources, such as welfare (Asad and Clair ). Attitudes toward undocumented immigrants begin to diverge sharply among party groups starting in 2004 (Figure ): while average warmth towards undocumented immigrants increased from 47 per cent to 52 per cent among Democrats between 2004 and 2016, these ratings among Republicans declined from 36 to 29 per cent over the same period.…”

Growing up Without Status: The Integration of Children in Mixed‐Status Families

“…While several compelling qualitative studies suggest that state policy moderates the impact of federal immigration law (Cebulko & Silver, ; Martinez, ) and other studies have estimated the direct impact of state policies on unauthorized immigrants (De Trinidad Young et al, ; Flores, ), more research is needed to explore the propositions raised by this research: to understand how and why states may moderate the impact of federal immigration law for the integration of children in mixed‐status families. While other studies demonstrate that the unauthorized experience varies by, for example, gender, race, and stage in the life course (Das Gupta, ; Flores & Schachter, ; Golash‐Boza & Hondagneu‐Sotelo, ), we suggest that attention to how the interaction between immigration policy, federal and state social policies, and individual characteristics would help further articulate the disadvantages of unauthorized immigration status.…”

“…Another area of unanswered questions involves how policy interacts with different aspects of the unauthorized immigrant experience, both within the lives of immigrants and between immigrants defined by local contexts, such as states or communities, and sociodemographic characteristics, such as national origin, race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, and sexuality (Flores & Schachter, 2018;Ruszczyk & Yrizar Barbosa, 2016). While several compelling qualitative studies suggest that state policy moderates the impact of federal immigration law (Cebulko & Silver, 2016;Martinez, 2014) and other studies have estimated the direct impact of state policies on unauthorized immigrants (De Trinidad Young et al, 2018;Flores, 2009), more research is needed to explore the propositions raised by this research: to understand how and why states may moderate the impact of federal immigration law for the integration of children in mixed-status families.…”