IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v90y2009i3p593-610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is Immigration a Racial Issue? Anglo Attitudes on Immigration Policies in a Border County

Author

Listed:
  • John W. Ayers
  • C. Richard Hofstetter
  • Keith Schnakenberg
  • Bohdan Kolody

Abstract

Objective. This study assesses the association between Anglo aversion to Latinos, physical proximity to Latinos, and contact with ethnic minorities, with expressed preferences for immigration policies. Methods. Data were drawn from a telephone survey of San Diego County, California, residents (N=549 Anglos) using random‐digit‐dial procedures during 2005–2006 that was conducted by closely supervised professional interviewers. Descriptive reports, tau‐b correlations, and multivariate logistic regressions were used for analysis. Results. Aversion to Latinos, as indicated by an adaptation of the Bogardus social distance scale, was related to more restrictionist attitudes about legal and Mexican immigration. Associations increased when respondents were primed to consider Mexican immigration, although aversion to Latinos was not related to attitudes about amnesty for undocumented persons. Contrary to some previous findings, proximity to Latino populations increased opposition to legal immigration and amnesty. Reported minority contact had minimal impact but increased support for amnesty. Conclusions. Attitudes about immigration may be motivated more by racial resentments than other considerations. Future research should identify racial factors that influence Anglo policy positions beyond the classic Anglo/African division that has dominated this research arena.

Suggested Citation

  • John W. Ayers & C. Richard Hofstetter & Keith Schnakenberg & Bohdan Kolody, 2009. "Is Immigration a Racial Issue? Anglo Attitudes on Immigration Policies in a Border County," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(3), pages 593-610, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:593-610
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00633.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00633.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00633.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sears, David O. & Laar, Colette van & Carillo, Mary & Kosterman, Rick, 1997. "Is It Really Racism? The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies," Institute for Social Science Research, Working Paper Series qt00j4p6z2, Institute for Social Science Research, UCLA.
    2. Sears, David O. & Lau, Richard R. & Tyler, Tom R. & Allen, Harris M., 1980. "Self-Interest vs. Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Presidential Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 670-684, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. James Laurence & Katharina Schmid & Miles Hewstone, 2018. "Ethnic Diversity, Inter-group Attitudes and Countervailing Pathways of Positive and Negative Inter-group Contact: An Analysis Across Workplaces and Neighbourhoods," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 719-749, April.
    2. Marfouk, Abdeslam, 2016. "I’m Neither Racist nor Xenophobic, but: Dissecting European Attitudes towards a Ban on Muslims’ Immigration," MPRA Paper 79747, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Brian P. An & Wei-Lin Chen, 2015. "The Role of Cognitive and Cultural Sophistication on Diversity Outcomes: Differences Across Fields of Study," Journal of Social Science Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 2(1), pages 144-164, January.
    4. Fiona Kate Barlow & Matthew J Hornsey & Michael Thai & Nikhil K Sengupta & Chris G Sibley, 2013. "The Wallpaper Effect: The Contact Hypothesis Fails for Minority Group Members Who Live in Areas with a High Proportion of Majority Group Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Benjamin R. Knoll, 2013. "Implicit Nativist Attitudes, Social Desirability, and Immigration Policy Preferences," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 132-165, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sears, David O. & Valentino, Nicholas A. & Cheleden, Sharmaine V., 1999. "Long-Term Continuities in the Politics of Race," Institute for Social Science Research, Working Paper Series qt8h93k5zb, Institute for Social Science Research, UCLA.
    2. Matthew Palm & Susan Handy, 2018. "Sustainable transportation at the ballot box: a disaggregate analysis of the relative importance of user travel mode, attitudes and self-interest," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 121-141, January.
    3. Jason Barabas, 1998. "Wage Erosion, Economic Assessments, and Social Welfare Opinions," JCPR Working Papers 56, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    4. Author-Name: Alan S. Blinder & Alan B. Krueger, 2004. "What Does the Public Know about Economic Policy, and How Does It Know It?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(1), pages 327-397.
    5. Marfouk, Abdeslam, 2013. "Préjugés et fausses idées sur l’immigration et les immigrés, vecteurs de discrimination en matière d’accès à l’emploi [false ideas about immigrants and immigration and discrimination in labor marke," MPRA Paper 47989, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Zheng Song, 2012. "Persistent Ideology And The Determination Of Public Policy Over Time," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(1), pages 175-202, February.
    7. Inna Cabelkova & Lubos Smutka, 2021. "The Effects of Solidarity, Income, and Reliance on the State on Personal Income Tax Preferences. The Case of the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Matt Guardino & Suzanne Mettler, 2020. "Revealing the “Hidden welfare state†: How policy information influences public attitudes about tax expenditures," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(1).
    9. James W. Stoutenborough & Arnold Vedlitz & Xinsheng Liu, 2015. "The Influence of Specific Risk Perceptions on Public Policy Support," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 658(1), pages 102-120, March.
    10. Gregory Chow & Yan Shen, 2004. "Money, Price Level and Output in the Chinese Macro Economy," Working Papers 104, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    11. Roland Iwan Luttens & Marie-Anne Valfort, 2012. "Voting for Redistribution under Desert-Sensitive Altruism," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(3), pages 881-907, September.
    12. Olof Johansson-Stenman & Peter Martinsson, 2005. "Anyone for higher speed limits? – Self-interested and adaptive political preferences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 319-331, March.
    13. Andrew Austin & Nathaniel T. Wilcox, 2004. "Believing in Economic Theory: Sex, Lies, Evidence, Trust and Ideology," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp238, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    14. Baker, Andy & Velasco-Guachalla, Vania Ximena, 2018. "Is the Informal Sector Politically Different? (Null) Answers from Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 170-182.
    15. Caplan, Bryan, 2001. "When is two better than one? How federalism mitigates and intensifies imperfect political competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 99-119, April.
    16. Cuccia, Andrew D. & Carnes, Gregory A., 2001. "A closer look at the relation between tax complexity and tax equity perceptions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 113-140, April.
    17. Johanna Jauernig & Stephan Brosig & Silke Hüttel, 2023. "Profession and residency matter: Farmers' preferences for farmland price regulation in Germany," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 816-834, September.
    18. repec:pra:mprapa:47899 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Bruno Castanho Silva & Jens Wäckerle & Christopher Wratil, 2022. "Determinants of Public Opinion Support for a Full Embargo on Russian Energy in Germany," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 170, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    20. Benjamin R. Knoll, 2013. "Implicit Nativist Attitudes, Social Desirability, and Immigration Policy Preferences," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 132-165, March.
    21. Sears, David O. & Laar, Colette van & Carillo, Mary & Kosterman, Rick, 1997. "Is It Really Racism? The Origins of White Americans' Opposition to Race-Targeted Policies," Institute for Social Science Research, Working Paper Series qt00j4p6z2, Institute for Social Science Research, UCLA.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:593-610. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.