Intervening in Anti-Immigrant Sentiments: The Causal Effects of Factual Information on Attitudes toward Immigration

AuthorVan C. Tran,Tiffany J. Huang,Maria Abascal
Published date01 September 2021
Date01 September 2021
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211053987
174 ANNALS, AAPSS, 697, September 2021
DOI: 10.1177/00027162211053987
Intervening in
Anti-Immigrant
Sentiments:
The Causal
Effects of
Factual
Information on
Attitudes
toward
Immigration
By
MARIA ABASCAL,
TIFFANY J. HUANG,
and
VAN C. TRAN
1053987ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYINTERVENING IN ANTI-IMMIGRANT SENTIMENTS
research-article2021
If preferences on immigration policy respond to facts,
widespread misinformation poses an obstacle to con-
sensus. Does factual information about immigration
indeed affect policy preferences? Are beliefs about
immigration’s societal impact the mechanism through
which factual information affects support for increased
immigration? To address these questions, we con-
ducted an original survey experiment, in which we
presented a nationally representative sample of 2,049
Americans living in the United States with facts about
immigrants’ English acquisition and immigrants’ impact
on crime, jobs, and taxes—four domains with common
misperceptions. Three of these factual domains (immi-
gration’s impact on crime, jobs, and taxes) raise overall
support for increased immigration. These facts also
affect beliefs that are directly relevant to that informa-
tion. Moreover, those beliefs mediate the effect of fac-
tual information on support for increased immigration.
By contrast, information about English acquisition
affects neither policy preferences nor beliefs about
immigration’s impact. Facts can leverage social cogni-
tions to change policy preferences.
Keywords: immigration; attitudes; misinformation;
information treatment; survey experiment
Opposition to immigration draws on wide-
spread concerns about immigration’s impact
on cultural unity, on crime and safety, and on
native-born workers and the economy. These
concerns are fueled by widely circulating mis-
information about immigrants’ economic and
Maria Abascal is an assistant professor of sociology at
New York University. Her research has been published
in Science, American Journal of Sociology, American
Sociological Review, International Migration Review,
and other journals.
Tiffany J. Huang is a provost’s postdoctoral fellow in the
Department of Sociology at the University of
Pennsylvania. Her research examines the outcomes and
racialization of immigrants and the second generation.
Her work has been published in journals including
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ethnic
and Racial Studies.
Correspondence: m.abascal@nyu.edu
INTERVENING IN ANTI-IMMIGRANT SENTIMENTS 175
sociocultural integration. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (2001),
which tracks hate groups and hate crimes in the United States, misinformation
includes the following claims: “Today’s immigrants don’t want to learn English”;
“Immigrants increase unemployment and reduce wages”; “People from other
countries are coming to the United States and bringing crime and violence”; and
“Immigrants use more government services than they pay for with their taxes”
(Teaching Tolerance 2011).
These claims have been refuted by social science research, including two
prominent reports by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society (2015) and The
Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration (2017). This study asks
whether reading accurate information about immigration—gleaned from these
reports and other sources—shifts U.S.-based Americans’ support for increased
immigration and their beliefs about immigration’s impact on U.S. society.
Prior research has documented the cultural, demographic, economic, and
social factors associated with immigration policy preferences. By contrast, our
goal is not only to understand which misperceptions best predict immigration
policy preferences, but also which cognitive misperceptions provide effective
levers for changing these preferences. Moreover, past studies do not clarify
whether the concerns that drive immigration policy preferences are themselves
responsive to intervention or if they can mediate the relationship between factual
information and preferences.
The Sources of Anti-Immigrant Sentiments
Immigration is squarely on the national agenda. According to recent estimates,
23 percent of U.S. Americans think immigration is the most important problem
facing the country; 35 percent feel that immigration to the United States should
be decreased (Jones 2019). Relatedly, 34 percent of U.S. Americans think immi-
grants are a burden on the country, a view that is also prevalent in other destina-
tion countries (Gonzalez-Barrera and Connor 2019). U.S. Americans’ views of
immigration are racialized, with U.S. Americans’ stereotypes of Latinos and
Mexicans most closely conforming to negative stereotypes of a “generic immi-
grant” (Lee and Fiske 2006). Anti-immigrant sentiments are politically conse-
quential and have been linked to voting for Donald Trump in the United States
Van C. Tran is an associate professor of sociology and deputy director of the Center for Urban
Research at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). His current research
examines racial attitudes among Asian Americans and neighborhood gentrification in New
York City.
NOTE: Authors are listed alphabetically by surname and contributed equally to this article.
We thank Susan Fiske, Jennifer Lee, John Mollenkopf, Ilka Vari-Lavoisier, and Andreas
Wimmer for feedback on an earlier draft, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center for fund-
ing support.

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