Mexican immigrant experiences with discrimination in southern Appalachia

Lippard, Cameron D.; Spann, Michael

doi:10.1057/lst.2014.42

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a study of North Carolina resident attitudes toward Latino immigration, McClain (2006) found that over 52 percent of black and white respondents felt that Latino immigrants were a problem in the state because they were taking jobs and using up public services. Another recent study of Mexican immigrants living in western North Carolina found that Mexican immigrants reported moderate levels of blatant and subtle acts of discrimination toward them in almost every social setting (Lippard and Spann 2014).…”

Section: Theoretical Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing the “Immigrant Card”

Lippard

2015

Social Currents

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Polls measuring attitudes on immigration suggest that Americans generally agree that immigration is good for the United States. However, these same polls suggest that Americans support strict border enforcement and racial profiling to curtail illegal immigration. These same mixed responses about immigration also characterize southern views, particularly in new immigrant destinations. Drawing on 180 in-depth interviews from southern college students, this article uses color-blind racism and racist nativism theories to examine immigration rhetoric. Results suggest that respondents fear immigrants “taking over,” racializing the immigration debate to only focus on Mexican immigrants. They also conflate their views of blacks and Mexican immigrants, suggesting these two groups are essentially the same. However, they deflect being blatantly racist nativist by camouflaging their comments with color-blind frames. Many note that the mistreatment of immigrants is “fair” in comparison with their immigrant ancestors, and because immigrants are here “illegally.” These findings advance color-blind rhetoric research beyond the black-white dichotomy by focusing on non-white immigrants. It also demonstrates that researchers should consider how at least respondents in new southern immigrant destinations intertwine various color-blind and racist nativist devices to shape immigration attitudes.

show abstract

Section: Theoretical Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%