Search

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. Keywords: Immigration, Americanism, Ethnonationalism, National Identity, Ordinal Logit, Intercultural Relations. 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 estn incompletas. Nosotros sostenemos que esto tiene implicaciones mayores para aquellos que buscan disenar politicas y programas que moderen las actitudes negativas hacia los inmigrantes., The past two decades in Europe and the United States have seen a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in mainstream politics. This has included the penetration of previously radical far-right ideas, [...]

This study expands the literature by examining how the relationship between ethnic/cultural, civic, and liberal conceptions of American national identity shapes attitudes toward immigrants. Using two cross-sectional datasets, an ordinal logit model, and predicted probability scenarios, I find that an unequal balance (i.e., strong favoring of one or more dimensions at the expense of the others) of these three different dimensions of national identity results in extremely negative or positive attitudes toward immigrants, while those that hold moderate levels of these three elements of identity are likely to express neutral-to-positive attitudes. Argue that it is the balance between these dimensions that is important in shaping individual attitudes toward immigrants, making it essential to determine not just individual support for each dimension of national identity but the support of each dimension vis-a-vis each other. Keywords: National Identity, Immigration, Public Opinion, Americanism, Immigrant Attitudes, Immigration Policy, Ethnonationalism. Este estudio expande la literatura existente al examinar como la relacion entre concepciones etnicas/culturales, civicas y liberales de la identidad nacional estadounidense determina las actitudes hacia los inmigrantes. Usando dos bases de datos, un modelo de regresion logistica ordenado y escenarios con probabilidad predicha, encuentro un balance desigual (es decir, una fuerte inclinacion por una o mas dimensiones a expensas de otras) en estas tres diferentes dimensiones de identidad nacional que resulta en actitudes extremadamente positivas o negativas hacia los inmigrantes, mientras que aquellos que poseen niveles moderados de estos tipos de identidad son mas propensos a expresar actitudes neutrales o positivas hacia los inmigrantes. Por lo tanto, el balance entre estas dimensiones es importante para dar forma a las actitudes individuales hacia los inmigrantes, haciendo esencial el determinar apoyo no solo para cada dimension individual de identidad nacional, sino respaldar cada dimension vis-a-vis las otras., About these Mexican flags flying today ... If you want to come to America, then you come to America to be an American! --Pat Caddell (2006) Democratic Strategist and Pollster [...]

In today's fragmented media environment, citizens have an enhanced ability to select information outlets that match their preexisting political beliefs and avoid information sources that clash. This modern version of 'selective exposure' means that citizens can more easily isolate themselves from perspectives unlike their own. In this article, we employed a quasi-experimental design to test (1) the extent to which subjects selectively exposed themselves to opinion articles that were congenial to their presumed predispositions about Sarah Palin and (2) whether selective exposure reinforced these predispositions, thereby magnifying differences between Republicans and Democrats. We found that subjects did indeed tend to engage in selective exposure. And among those who did, there was evidence of reinforcement. Interestingly, there was evidence of persuasion among the relatively few subjects who exposed themselves to sources that ran counter to their predispositions. Keywords: Political Communications, New Media, Media Effects, Selective Exposure. En el ambiente fragmentado de los medios de comunicacion actuales los ciudadanos tienen una mayor habilidad de seleccionar medios de comunicacion que sean compatibles con sus creencias politicas preexistentes y evitar fuentes de informacion incompatibles. Esta version moderna de la 'exposicion selectiva' permite que los ciudadanos puedan aislarse mas facilmente de perspectivas contrarias a la propia. En este articulo, empleamos un diseno cuasi-experimental para examinar: (1) la medida en la que los sujetos selectivamente se exponen a articulos de opinion que congenien con sus predisposiciones acerca de Sarah Palin y (2) si la exposicion selectiva refuerza esta opinion, por lo tanto magnificando las diferencias entre Republicanos y Democratas. Encontramos que los sujetos efectivamente tienden a emplear una exposicion selectiva. Y entre aquellos que lo hacen, hay evidencia del reforzamiento de dicha opinion. Curiosamente, hubo evidencia de persuasion entre los sujetos que se expusieron a fuentes contrarias a su ideologia., Media fragmentation brings good news and bad news. The good news is that the media diet for most Americans is more varied and interesting than it used to be. Americans [...]