Countering Anti-immigrant Sentiment in the U.S. across Migration Motives

• In Event: Migration Motives and Public Opinion

Abstract

Recent research on host communities’ anti-immigrant sentiment has focused on examining the role that migration motives have on natives’ attitudes toward immigrants, finding that climate migrants are viewed more favorably than economic migrants, but less favorably than those fleeing violence or harm (Hebling 2020, Hedegaard 2021, Arias and Blair 2022). In this study, we contribute to this literature in two ways. First, our study extends previous research by examining how different drivers of migration shape immigration preferences. More specifically, our study unpacks the different forms of violence immigrants often flee, and thus examines whether migration preferences hinge upon the nature of violence and perpetrator type---considering sexual or non-sexual violence in the hands of state and non-state armed actors as reasons for migrating vis-à-vis climate and economic migration. As such, our study examines how the gendered nature of migration motives influences natives’ migration preferences. Second, we examine whether communication strategies focused on highlighting the forced nature of migration, regardless of the type of hardship suffered, improves natives’ attitudes toward immigrants and their willingness to approve entry in host countries. We argue that framing undocumented migration as the last resort improves citizens’ ratings of immigrants suffering hardship, independent of its source (i.e., climate, economic, or violence related). We test our hypotheses using data collected by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) through a nationally representative survey in the US, focusing on attitudes toward Central American immigrants, who often migrate due to a variety of hardships, including poverty, natural environmental disasters, and different forms of violence in the hands of organized criminal groups and state armed groups.

Author

• Diana Orces, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)