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The City of New Haven, CT, sought to promote the assimilation of its immigrants by becoming the first American city to provide a government-backed ID, the Elm City Resident Card, to all residents. This article tests the policy's effectiveness in commerce. We find that Hispanics/Latinos are asked to present an ID more than Whites/Anglos, showing that the former are in greater need of documentation, regardless of their citizenship status. When a Hispanic/Latino presented the Elm City Resident Card to a cashier, it fared only as well as an unofficial ID. Thus, we conclude that the card has negligible utility as a form of documentation. (Contains 3 tables and 6 figures.)

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01633.x Byline: John F. Dovidio (1), Agata Gluszek (1), Melissa-Sue John (2), Ruth Ditlmann (3), Paul Lagunes (3) Abstract: White-Black relations have historically been the defining form of intergroup relations in the study of prejudice and discrimination. The present article suggests that there are limitations to applying this model to understanding bias toward other groups and proposes that a comprehensive view of the dynamics of the Anglos' bias toward Latinos requires consideration of the distinctive elements of this form of intergroup relations. In four empirical studies, we experimentally document discrimination against Latinos (Study 1), explore the potential dimensions that underlie bias against Latinos (Study 2), and examine the effect of a particular social identity cue, accentedness, on perceptions of acceptance and belongingness of Latinos and members of other groups (Studies 3 and 4). These studies consider general processes of prejudice and identify how particular facets of bias against Latinos can shape their experiences and, taken together, illustrate how understanding bias against Latinos can reciprocally inform contemporary theories of prejudice. Author Affiliation: (1)Yale University (2)University of Connecticut (3)Yale University Article note: (*) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to John F. Dovidio, Department of Psychology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208205, New Haven, CT 06520 [e-mail: john.dovidio@yale.edu].