Perceptions of Threat, American National Identity, and Americans’ Attitudes Toward Documented and Undocumented Immigrants

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241252660
• Author: Dan Qi,James C. Garand
• Date: 01 September 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(3) 931–949

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129241252660

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Perceptions of Threat, American National

Identity, and Americans’Attitudes Toward

Documented and Undocumented

Immigrants

Dan Qi

1

and James C. Garand

2



Abstract

In this paper, we explore how the effects of perceived immigrant threat, American national identity, and attitudes toward

immigration-dominated racial/ethnic groups on perceptions of immigrant contributions differ for documented and

undocumented immigrants. We contend that different levels of perceived risk associated with undocumented and

documented immigrants activate the effects of immigrant threat and American identity in different ways. We consider the

varying effects of general perceptions of immigrant threat, and we also differentiate the effects of Am erican pride

(i.e., positive sentiments about being an American) and American exclusion (i.e., negative sentiments associated with

criteria needed to be considered an American). We use data from the 2016 to 2017 Voter Study Group surveys, which

includes a survey experiment with respondents randomly assigned to documented and undo cumented immigrant

treatments. We f‌ind strong negative effects of immigrant threat perceptions on Americans support for bot h immigrant

groups, with observed effects signif‌icantly stronger for undocumented immigrants. Further, while American exclusion

has strong negative effects on attitudes for both immigrant groups, American pride depresses support only for un-

documented immigrants. We also f‌ind that evaluations of Hispanics have effects on perceptions of contributions for

documented and undocumented immigrants, though the effect of Asian evaluations is limited to documented immigrants.

Keywords

immigrant threat, American national identity, documented immigrants, undocumented im migrants

Perceptions of threat by outside groups are a strong motivator

for both attitude development and behavior. Individuals who

perceive that they are threatened by another group are much

more likely to develop negative attitudes toward the group

seen as threatening, and further they are more likely to engage

in behavior deemed necessary to protect their interests

(Brewer 1999,2001). Over the course of American history,

Americans have often perceived that immigrants pose eco-

nomic, cultural, crime, or national security threats, and these

Americans are susceptible to information about potential

immigrant threats and to elite rhetoric that promotes the view

that immigrants represent a threat to some aspect(s) of

American society. Perceptions of immigrant threat are

thought to shape attitudes about immigration policy and

immigrants themselves, and in recent years such perceptions

are also thought to motivate voting behavior (Brader,

Valentino, and Suhay, 2008;Garand, Qi, and Magaña,

2022;Newman, Hartman, and Tabor, 2012). This is par-

ticularly the case in the contemporary political environment,

where immigration has been a highly contentious issue that

feeds political polarization and policy disagreement.

Perceptions of immigrant threat do not necessarily

exist in a vacuum. Rather, Americans who have a strong

national identity are more likely to perceive immigrants as

an outgroup (i.e., as “the other”) and to perceive immi-

grants as a threat (Garand, Qi, and Magaña, 2022;

1

Reed College, Portland, OR, USA

2

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Dan Qi, Department of Political Science, Reed College, 3203 SE

Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202-8199, USA.

Email: qidan@reed.edu

Schildkraut, 2010). In evaluating how Americans per-

ceive immigrants, it is essential to consider both their

perceptions of immigrant (out-group) threat and their level

of American (in-group) identity. Furthermore, not all

immigrants are evaluated in the same way by Americans.

Immigrants who come to the United States with legal

documentation may be viewed differently than immi-

grants who come to the United States without legal

documentation (Hainmueller and Hopkins, 2015;Hood

and Morris, 1998;Wright, Levy,and Ci trin, 2016), and the

effects of perceptions of immigrant threat and American

identity on Americans’evaluations of immigrants and

immigration policies may vary across these different

groups of immigrants. Moreover, there is some evidence

that the racial/ethnic makeup of immigrant groups may

generate threat perceptions relating to increasing diversity

and the declining White share of the American population

(cf., Craig and Richeson, 2017;Major, Blodorn, and

Blascovich, 2018). Simply, some immigrants may acti-

vate perceptions of immigrant threat in ways that other

immigrants do not.

In this paper, we explore how the effects of immigrant

threat perceptions and American identity differ for

different kinds of immigrants. Do documented and

undocumented immigrants trigger the effects of immi-

grant threat and American identity in different ways? We

use data from the Voter Study Group (VSG) surveys

from 2016 to 2017, which includes a survey experiment

in which individuals are randomly assigned to docu-

mented and undocumented treatment groups. We use

these data to test hypotheses about differences in how

immigrant threat and American identity inf‌luence

Americans’attitudes about the contributions made by

documented and undocumented immigrants to American

society. We f‌ind that both immigrant threat and Amer-

ican identity are strong predictors of immigrant attitudes,

but there is considerable variation in the magnitude of

these effects for these two immigrant groups. Simply,

two components of social identity theory—perceptions

of outgroup threat (i.e., immigrant threat) and strength of

in-group identity (i.e., American pride) appear to have

stronger negative effects on perceived contributions of

undocumented immigrants than of documented immi-

grants. Further, we account for possible effects of race

and ethnicity by considering the differential effects of

Americans’evaluations of Hispanics and Asians—the

two largest immigrant groups—on the favorability of

their attitudes toward documented and undocumented

immigrants.

Previous Research

The roles of immigrant threat and American identity in

shaping how individuals think about immigration have

drawn considerable scholarly attention (cf., Berinsky

et al., 2018;Dancygier and Donnelly, 2013;Garand,

Qi, and Magaña, 2022;Malhotra, Margalit, and Mo,

2013;Mayda, 2006;Newman 2013;Scheve and

Slaughter, 2001). In previous research, scholars have

considered the effects of immigrant threat, particularly the

different effects across the various dimensions of threat.

Much of the research on the immigrant threat is based on

the European context (Dinesen, Klemmensen, and

Nørgaard, 2016;Fitzgerald, Curtis, and Corliss, 2012;

Hainmueller and Hiscox, 2007). Some scholars focus

attention only on immigrant threat in general (McLaren

and Johnson, 2007;Pettigrew, Ulrich, and Christ, 2007),

while other scholars consider domain-specif‌ic immigrant

threat by focusing their attention on economic, cultural,

crime, and national security threat (Branton et al., 2011;

Chandler and Tsai, 2001;Fitzgerald, Curtis, and Corliss,

2012;Malhotra, Margalit, and Mo, 2013;Manevska and

Achterberg, 2013).

The second strain of scholarly research relevant to our

paper involves American identity—particularly in terms

of how American identity shapes individuals’evaluations

of immigrants. There are multiple dimensions of Amer-

ican identity, and there is some sense in the literature that

(1) American identity matters for immigration attitudes

and (2) specif‌ic dimensions of American identity have

stronger effects than others. For instance, some scholars

differentiate an exclusionary view of American identity

(often described as xenophobia) and a more positive

national pride (often described as patriotism) (cf., de

Figueiredo and Elkins, 2003;Schildkraut, 2005 2014;

Wong, 2010). Regarding immigration attitudes,

Schildkraut (2005) and Wong (2010) f‌ind that Americans

who have an exclusionary view of American identity—

that is, those whose sense of American identity separates

others into deserving and undeserving groups, depending

on whether they meet specif‌ic criteria—are more likely to

oppose expanded immigration. Some scholars also con-

sider the role of assimilation and adoption of norms as-

sociated with American identity; perceptions of whether

or not immigrants assimilate or adopt American norms are

a powerful predictor of anti-immigration attitudes. For

instance, expectations that immigrants learn English is an

important def‌ining element of being an American (Theiss-

Morse 2009), and there is some evidence that Americans’

exposure to Spanish-speaking populations increases

perceptions of immigrant threat and diminishes support

for immigration (Newman 2013;Newman, Todd, and

Taber 2012). Other scholars contend that acceptance of

immigrants is tied to whether they have the historical

background and cultural roots associated with Ameri-

canism (Huntington, 2004;Theiss-Morse, 2009).

There is also a body of research that explores the ef-

fects of immigrant characteristics on both general support

932 Political Research Quarterly 77(3)