ABSTRACT

Race consistently patterns anti-immigrant bias. However, it is less clear if all racial groups define “being American” in the same way. This work explores the ways ascribed characteristics that define being “American,” termed Ascripted Americanness, potentially contributes to racial variation in attitudes toward immigrants. Using the 2004 & 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1,774), results show that emphasizing any facet of Ascripted Americanness, particularly US ancestry, correlates to anti-immigrant hostility. Furthermore, the connection between Ascripted Americanness and hostility tends to be more pronounced for white adults compared to black or Latinx adults. Ultimately, these findings reveal that hostility toward immigrants is shaped by the racialization of symbolic boundaries around “being American.”

摘要

种族始终形成反移民偏见。然而，如果所有种族群体都以同样的方式定义“成为美国人”，那就不太清楚了。这项工作探讨了定义为“美国人”的归因特征（称为 Ascripted Americanness）可能导致对移民态度的种族差异的方式。使用 2004 年和 2014 年的一般社会调查 (n = 1,774)，结果表明，强调 Ascripted Americanness 的任何方面，特别是美国血统，都与反移民的敌意有关。此外，与黑人或拉丁裔成年人相比，白人成年人与敌意之间的联系往往更为明显。最终，这些发现表明，对移民的敌意是由围绕“成为美国人”的象征性界限的种族化形成的。