Reevaluating American Attitudes toward Immigrants in the Twenty-First Century: The Role of a Multicreedal National Identity

The past two decades have seen anti-immigrant ideas permeate national political discourse in Europe and North America. Ideas previously confined to the political margins are now part of the mainstream. Appeals to traditional political ideas and loyalty to state institutions—seen as an antidote to such ideas—have failed to stem the tide of anti-immigrant policies. We offer an explanation of why appeals to political institutions fail to curb anti-immigrant sentiment. We demonstrate that past empirical research into dimensions of identity has failed to model interactive effects between dimensions, leading to mixed results concerning policy preference and identity formation. We also demonstrate that an interaction effect exists between civic and ethnocultural dimensions that moderate each other as affinity rises. We show that previous research blaming most negative policy preference on the ethnocultural dimension is incomplete. This has significant implications for those seeking to design policies and programs that moderate negative attitudes toward immigrants. Related Articles Byrne, Jennifer. 2011. “National Identity and Attitudes toward Immigrants in a ‘Multicreedal’ America.” Politics and Policy 39 (4): 485-514. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2011.00301.x/abstract;jsessionid=C58DAF5DB86958A491FCCA5A983F81EB.d03t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false Swain, Carol. 2008. “Debating Immigration.” Politics and Policy 36 (6): 1126-1129. Sabia, Debra. 2010. “The Anti-Immigrant Fervor in Georgia: Return of the Nativists or Just Politics as Usual.” Politics and Policy 38 (1): 53-80. Podcast National Public Radio. 2011. “Do America's Changing Demographics Impact Politics?” http://www.npr.org/2011/07/04/137609363/do-americas-changing-demographics-impact-politics Durante las ultimas dos decadas las ideas anti inmigrantes han permeado el discurso politico nacional en Europa y Norteamerica. Ideas previamente confinadas a los margenes politicos ahora son una parte central de la politica. La alusion a ideas politicas tradicionales y lealtad a instituciones del estado—vistas como un remedio para tales ideas—no han sido exitosas para cambiar las politicas anti inmigrantes. Este articulo ofrece una explicacion del por que las instituciones fallan en mitigar los sentimientos anti inmigrantes. Nosotros demostramos que investigaciones empiricas previas sobre las dimensiones de la identidad han fallado al modelar los efectos de interaccion entre dimensiones. Esto ha resultado en la disparidad de resultados relacionados a las preferencias politicas y la formacion de la identidad. Demostramos tambien que existe un efecto de interaccion entre dimensiones civicas y etnoculturales, y que una modera a la otra a medida que la afinidad aumenta. Por ultimo, demostramos que las investigaciones previas que atribuian la mayor parte de las preferencias politicas negativas a la dimension etnocultural estan incompletas. Nosotros sostenemos que esto tiene implicaciones mayores para aquellos que buscan disenar politicas y programas que moderen las actitudes negativas hacia los inmigrantes.