“Bad hombres” at the Southern US border? White nationalism and the perceived dangerousness of immigrants

Abstract

As a candidate and as president, Donald Trump heightened the salience of immigration, portraying those crossing the nation’s Southern border as “bad hombres” and advocating building a wall blocking their access to the United States from Mexico. Based on a 2019 MTurk study of 465 White adults, the current study found that a clear majority of respondents rejected this stereotype of Southern immigrants as “bad hombres,” judging them to be just as law-abiding as Americans. Importantly, however, the analysis revealed that two innovative measures—Hispanic resentment and, in particular, White nationalism—were consistently related to perceptions of immigrants as criminogenic. Given the growing demographic diversity of the United States, future research should consider the increasing influence of racial/ethnic resentment and White group identity on public opinions about immigration and other justice issues.

Is It Dangerous to Live in Neighborhoods with More Immigrants? Assessing the Effects of Immigrant Concentration on Crime Patterns

“…As the revitalization perspective argues, neighborhoods with a higher proportion of immigrant residents seem to be providing a protective buffer from social problems, and they are linked to relatively lower crime counts than other neighborhoods with a lower number of immigrants. These findings suggest that conventional notions about immigration and the associated amplified fear of more crime may be unmatched with social realities, calling for reconsideration of the current restrictive immigration policies and legislation (see also Kulig et al, 2020).…”

Who Wears the MAGA Hat? Racial Beliefs and Faith in Trump

“…This anomalous image only makes the whiteness of the occasion more poignant (Givhan 2019). The president's expressions of racial and ethnic animus are regularly featured and applauded (Fording and Schram 2020;Kulig et al forthcoming;O'Connor and Marans 2018).…”

Examining the Relationship Between Direct Exposure to Violence and Delinquent Behavior Across Different Immigrant Generations

“…Travel Ban (Barrow, 2018), detention policy (Medrano, 2018; Schriro, 2017) Deportation Act (King & Obinna, 2018; Macías-Rojas, 2018), and 287(g) Act (Decker et al, 2009; Koper et al, 2013) are policies increasingly restricting to immigrants. Although a recent study showed public’s positive perception toward immigrants (Kulig et al, 2021), many studies’ results revealed that the public perceives a negative image and even an anxious feeling toward immigrants from certain countries (Hartman et al, 2014; Pickett, 2016; Valentino et al, 2013). It is noteworthy that domestic views toward immigrants may vary depending on migrants’ origins (Pew Research Center, 2006).…”