Immigrants Confronting Immigration: Political Reactions to Culturally Distant Outgroups

This paper examines how social group boundaries are renegotiated in response to demographic change, focusing on immigration from culturally diverse backgrounds. Using a survey experiment in Spain, we explore how Latin American immigrants—who share linguistic and cultural affinities with natives—react to the perceived growth of Moroccans, a more culturally distant immigrant group. Drawing on social identity and political economy theories, we argue that exposure to Moroccan immigration prompts Latinos to align more closely with natives, reflecting a dynamic of strategic boundary-making. Results show that Latinos perceive themselves as closer to Spaniards and more socially recognized, accompanied by a shift toward defining \textit{“being Spanish”} in cultural rather than birth terms. We find no corresponding change among natives, who, if anything, perceive Latinos as less similar to them. These findings suggest that boundary-making is a fluid and strategic process that is influenced by relative cultural distance to other immigrant groups.