Status of immigrants’ country of origin and Americans’ assimilation expectations.

Abstract

Building on perspectives on triadic group relations and status hierarchies, we predicted that Americans would be more likely to expect immigrants from a perceived low-status rather than high-status country of origin to assimilate to the U.S. mainstream culture and that ethnocentrism would mediate this effect (N = 2,246). Using 60 countries/areas as targets, Study 1 showed that perceived country status negatively predicted assimilation expectations for immigrants from that country. In Studies 2 through 3, participants were exposed to a news article which emphasized China’s shortcomings, achievements, or status-irrelevant attributes. In Studies 4 through 7, including one preregistered study, participants were presented with a portrayal of a fictitious country with high (or intermediate) or low status. Compared with high-status (or intermediate status) conditions, American participants were more likely to expect immigrants from a low-status country to assimilate to the United States, and ethnocentrism (causally) mediated these effects even when alternative mediators were controlled. Moreover, assimilation expectations mediated the effect of country status on a tendency to Anglicize a new immigrant’s name. A meta-analysis supported a significant effect of country status on assimilation expectations, and a mega-analysis verified the mediating role of ethnocentrism. This research reveals a status bias toward immigrants, broadening our views on how international relations affect domestic relations, highlighting the importance and malleability of ethnocentrism. The generalizability of current American findings to other countries is discussed.

Ethnic Stereotype Content Beyond Intergroup Relations Within Societies: Exploring the North-South Hypothesis for Competence and Warmth

“…The results expand on previous findings (see Williams et al, 2015) that stereotypes associated with ethnic groups across countries to some extent track the stereotypes associated with the ecologies in which these ethnic groups are assumed to predominantly live. Moreover, the recent literature actively uses the concept of status of countries of origin (e.g., Gheorghiu et al, 2022; Kustov, 2019; Zhao & Biernat, 2022) but does not provide a systematic view on the ranking includes mapping countries of origin. Thus, this paper has filled this gap.…”

“…The details of how these two types of information about group status are combined remain to be understood. For example, Zhao & Biernat (2022) recently discussed that the individual-based/occupation-based status of immigrants could interact with their country-based status to affect assimilation expectations by the host society. Nevertheless, the recent work demonstrated that Spanish host society members prefer immigrants of higher country status over those of lower country status regardless of immigrants’ individual characteristics (Kustov, 2019).…”

“…4.These findings also can be addressed the distinction in the literature between “valued” and “devalued” immigrants and related acculturation expectations (e.g., Montreuil & Bourhis, 2001; Zhao & Biernat, 2022). …”

The Say Wallahi Generation: A Narrative Study of Bicultural Identity for Somali American Emerging Adults

“… Note. 1.5 generation is used to categorize individuals that arrived in the United States as children, typically before the age of 12 (Zhao & Biernat, 2022); second generation denotes those born in the U.S.…”

Which immigrants are welcome: The role of worldview conflict and immigrants' social status

“…The host group leaves no room for cultural differences among low-status immigrants. A recent study conducted in the United States showed that compared with high-status immigrants, participants were more likely to expect low-status immigrants to abandon their specific culture and assimilate to the United States (Zhao & Biernat, 2022). In other words, immigrants of high social status are allowed to express different acculturation orientations.…”