“It could be 3 million, it could be 30 million”: Quantitative misperceptions about undocumented immigration and immigration attitudes in the Trump era

McConnell, Eileen Díaz

doi:10.1057/s41276-022-00351-w

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Despite differences in operationalizing measures of immigrant population, 3 a robust finding of this research is that citizens tend to overestimate the number of immigrants in their countries and that overestimation is associated with negative feelings about immigration (Blinder and Jeannet, 2018; Hopkins et al, 2019; Citrin and Sides, 2008; Sides and Citrin, 2007). This finding holds even when considering specific subgroups of immigrants and different national contexts (Blinder and Schaffner, 2020; Grigorieff et al, 2020; Herda, 2010, 2013; Semyonov et al, 2004; Díaz McConnell, 2022).…”

Section: Numbers and Imagesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Numbers and Images: Representations of Immigration and Public Attitudes about Immigration in Canada

Paquet

Lawlor²

2022

Can J Pol Sci

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Perceptions of numbers (numerical estimations of migrant flows) and mental images (beliefs about characteristics and motives of immigrants) have been shown to be important predictors of cross-national immigration attitudes. However, this finding has seldom been verified in Canada. As a result, we know little about how Canadians estimate the amount and type of migrants coming into the country, what drives the generation of these numbers and images, and what the consequences of numerical estimations and mental images of immigration are for public attitudes toward immigration. Using nationally representative cross-sectional survey data from 2019, this article reports that Canadians generally overestimate the number of refugees and asylum-seekers coming into the country but are comparatively less prone to overestimating the overall number of immigrants. Canadians also rely on mental images about the reasons for immigrating to Canada that diverge from the realities of Canada's immigration program. We document how reliance on these numbers and images is driven by the type of media consumed, feelings of threat, and individual-level characteristics of Canadians. In doing so, this article demonstrates that mental images strongly influence Canadians’ attitudes toward immigration; numerical estimates also matter, but less so. Furthermore, perceptions of the number of migrants arriving affect latent preferences toward immigration—such as ethnocentrism, perceptions of “threat,” and border insecurity—while mental images shape both preferences for lowering immigration intake and latent preferences.

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Section: Numbers and Imagesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Numbers and Images: Representations of Immigration and Public Attitudes about Immigration in Canada

Paquet

Lawlor²

2022

Can J Pol Sci

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“…Xenophobic rhetoric surrounding Mexican and other immigration and racially targeted U.S. immigration enforcement activities both have a long history in the United States (Molina, 2014; Ngai, 2004; Sampaio, 2015). However, Trump has been an especially important communicator of these themes, commonly relying on overtly nativist and xenophobic metaphors regarding Mexican immigrants and Mexico (McConnell, 2022; Santa Ana et al, 2020). Aside from rhetoric, the Trump Administration increased deportations of unauthorized immigrants, announced the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and engaged in other activities that led to Trump's classification as having the most restrictionist immigration agenda of any modern U.S. president (Pierce et al, 2017).…”

Section: Intersectionality the Sdoh And Latinx Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Trump Administrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An intersectional and social determinants of health framework for understanding Latinx psychological distress in 2020: Disentangling the effects of immigration policy and practices, the Trump Administration, and COVID-19-specific factors.

McConnell¹,

Sheehan²,

Lopez³

2023

Journal of Latinx Psychology

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The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted U.S. communities of color, such as the Latino/x population. The pandemic coincides with other major contemporary structural factors affecting Latinxs, including the effects of U.S. immigration policies and President Trump's xenophobic rhetoric and priorities. Yet, the independent and simultaneous implications of the larger sociopolitical climate and specific COVID-19 concerns for Latinx mental health remain less clear. The present study uses an intersectional and social determinants of health framework to examine these relationships. Multivariable regression models were estimated with three waves of population-based panel data from the Pew American Trends Study (collected between 2019 and 2020) with Latinx adults (n = 1,132). We simultaneously examined how worries regarding deportation, respondents' citizenship and legal status, perceptions regarding the Trump Administration, anti-Hispanic discrimination, and pandemicrelated concerns predicted variation in Latinx self-reported psychological distress, after adjusting for other important covariates. We also conducted analyses separately by gender. The results indicated that worrying about a family member or a friend being deported, perceiving higher anti-Hispanic discrimination, and viewing coronavirus as a threat to respondents' personal health and finances were significantly associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Stratified analyses revealed that gender filters the ways that some of these stressors affect the mental health of Latinas, such as perceived threats about deportation, compared to Latinos. Taken together, this work demonstrates the diverse social determinants shaping Latinx mental health in intersectional ways early in the pandemic. Public Significance StatementThis study finds that worries about deportation, perceptions of anti-Hispanic discrimination, and having higher levels of COVID-19-related financial and health concerns were significantly associated with increased psychological distress among Latinxs in Spring 2020, net of other covariates. Gender-stratified analyses reveal that worries about deportation, legal and citizenship status, and pandemic-related effects on This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

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Cultural Stress Profiles: Describing Different Typologies of Migration Related and Cultural Stressors among Hispanic or Latino Youth

Zeledon

Unger

Meca

et al. 2023

J Youth Adolescence

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Youth of immigrant origin vary across their families’ migration history (e.g., country of heritage, reasons for migration, etc.) and in the communities in which they reside. As such, these youth are often faced with different cultural and immigrant stressors. Although prior research documented the detrimental impact of cultural and immigrant stressors, variable-centered approaches fail to account for the fact that these stressors often co-occur. Addressing this gap, the current study identified typologies of cultural stressors in Hispanic/Latino adolescents using latent profile analysis. Cultural stress profiles were derived using socio-political stress, language brokering, in-group identity threats, and within-group discrimination as indicators. The study was conducted in two sites (Los Angeles and Miami; total N = 306) during Spring and Summer 2020. A four-profile solution was identified: Low Cultural Stress (n = 94, 30.7%), Sociopolitical and Language Brokering Stress (n = 147, 48%), Sociopolitical and In-group Identity Threat Stress (n = 48, 15.7%), and Higher Stress (n = 17, 5.6%). Results indicate that profiles with stress were characterized by worse mental health symptoms, reporting higher means of depression, stress, and lower self-esteem, as well as by higher heritage cultural orientation compared to the low stress profile. Interventions designed to mitigate the deleterious effects of cultural stressors would benefit from adopting an individualized, tailored approach that addresses youth’s stress profile membership.

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“It could be 3 million, it could be 30 million”: Quantitative misperceptions about undocumented immigration and immigration attitudes in the Trump era

Cited by 5 publications

References 61 publications

Numbers and Images: Representations of Immigration and Public Attitudes about Immigration in Canada

Numbers and Images: Representations of Immigration and Public Attitudes about Immigration in Canada

An intersectional and social determinants of health framework for understanding Latinx psychological distress in 2020: Disentangling the effects of immigration policy and practices, the Trump Administration, and COVID-19-specific factors.

Cultural Stress Profiles: Describing Different Typologies of Migration Related and Cultural Stressors among Hispanic or Latino Youth

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