Immigrant Opposition in a Changing National Demographic

• Date: 01 June 2020
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912919827107
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919827107

Political Research Quarterly

2020, Vol. 73(2) 340 –351

© 2019 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912919827107

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Article

Introduction

The last decade has seen debate over immigration policy

take center stage in American politics from the 2006

immigration reform protests to the “Gang of Eight”

immigration bill to more recent battles over the Deferred

Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Over

the same period, immigrant demographics have changed

dramatically, with a significant increase in immigration

from Latin America and Asia. According to the 2010

Census, both the Latina/o and Asian American popula-

tions in the United States have more than tripled since

1980, with Latina/os comprising more than 16 percent of

the total U.S. population, and Asian Americans 5 percent

(Iceland, Weinberg and Hughes 2014). Sharp increases in

outgroup populations, combined with declines in the non-

Hispanic white population, have increased interethnic

tensions, often directed toward immigrants entering the

United States. Throughout U.S. history, increased immi-

gration has been met with hostility by citizens (Abrajano

and Hajnal 2017; Higham 2002), with immigrants being

framed as economic threats (Borjas 1999), cultural threats

(Huntington 2004), and security threats (Martinez and

Valenzuela 2006).

Extant scholarship shows that racial context can have

a strong effect on immigration attitudes of white

Americans (e.g., Hopkins 2010; Massey and Denton

1988; Newman 2013; Rocha and Espino 2009). The

focus of this paper is on the effects of demographic

change and residential segregation on white attitudes on

immigration policy, measured using five questions from

the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES).

This paper attempts to answer two questions. First, to

what extent does the level of residential segregation

mediate the effect of demographic change on immigra-

tion policy views? Second, do whites react differently to

increases in the Asian American population in their

county than to Latina/os, or are they simply reacting to

an increase in the outgroup population regardless of

ethnicity?

This study contributes to the literature by showing that

our understanding of the effects of racial context on

827107PRQXXX10.1177/1065912919827107Political Research QuarterlyArora

research-article2019

1University of California, Irvine, USA

Corresponding Author:

Maneesh Arora, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science

Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA.

Email: maneesha@uci.edu

Immigrant Opposition in a Changing

National Demographic

Maneesh Arora1

Abstract

This article advances the argument that the effects of demographic change on individual-level immigration policy

preferences is dependent on the level of segregation in the individuals’ local context. Increases in the immigrant

population in highly segregated counties should increase opposition to immigration because opportunities for contact

and exposure are missing and group differences are emphasized. Meanwhile, population increases in more integrated

counties should lead to an alleviation of interethnic tensions due to more frequent opportunities for contact.

Furthermore, whites may react differently to changes in racial/ethnic composition of a local context depending on

the particular group moving into the area because some groups are closer to fulfilling Allport’s equal status contact

condition than others. The empirical analysis finds strong support for the first assertion that population growth of

Latina/os and Asian Americans in highly segregated areas results in support for restrictive immigration policy, while

population growth in more integrated areas results in support for permissive immigration policy. The results are

inconclusive for the second assertion as the effects of Asian American and Latina/o population growth are so highly

dependent on segregation levels.

Keywords

segregation, demographic change, immigration policy, interaction effects, public opinion.