Human Rights, Incentivizing Behaviors, and Security: Attitudes on Immigration Reform
Additional Funding Sources
This project is supported by a 2018-2019 STEM Undergraduate Research Grant from the Higher Education Research Council.
Abstract
The issue of immigration and immigration reform has been highly salient since President Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. Since becoming President, there have been several high profile controversies regarding immigration policy. This project seeks to understand attitudes toward immigration reform, in light of this heightened level of attention. Specifically, we examine the strength of social contact theory when held up against risk perceptions. Previous research shows that social contact between groups is a strong determinant of society’s attitudes towards different matters. Risk perception theory is less researched, but it shows to be important as well. It states that fear drives attitudes and will supersede every other factor, even morality theory. Media is being used as a control because it plays a substantial role in the believability of either theoretical perspective due to the media portrayal of these immigration policies.We are using these theoretical perspectives to analyze and help explain societal views on the immigration policies of the opposition to separating children from their parents at the border, building a wall, and offering citizenship to undocumented immigrants who serve the country through military service. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 317 students at a mid-sized state university. Preliminary results indicate that social contact does not hold up against risk perceptions when predicting immigration reform attitudes.
Human Rights, Incentivizing Behaviors, and Security: Attitudes on Immigration Reform
The issue of immigration and immigration reform has been highly salient since President Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. Since becoming President, there have been several high profile controversies regarding immigration policy. This project seeks to understand attitudes toward immigration reform, in light of this heightened level of attention. Specifically, we examine the strength of social contact theory when held up against risk perceptions. Previous research shows that social contact between groups is a strong determinant of society’s attitudes towards different matters. Risk perception theory is less researched, but it shows to be important as well. It states that fear drives attitudes and will supersede every other factor, even morality theory. Media is being used as a control because it plays a substantial role in the believability of either theoretical perspective due to the media portrayal of these immigration policies.We are using these theoretical perspectives to analyze and help explain societal views on the immigration policies of the opposition to separating children from their parents at the border, building a wall, and offering citizenship to undocumented immigrants who serve the country through military service. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 317 students at a mid-sized state university. Preliminary results indicate that social contact does not hold up against risk perceptions when predicting immigration reform attitudes.
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