Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:34:20.430Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changing In-Group Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2021

VASILIKI FOUKA Open the ORCID record for VASILIKI FOUKA [Opens in a new window]  and
MARCO TABELLINI Open the ORCID record for MARCO TABELLINI [Opens in a new window]
VASILIKI FOUKA*
Affiliation:
Stanford University, United States
MARCO TABELLINI*
Affiliation:
Harvard Business School, United States
*
Vasiliki Fouka, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, United States, vfouka@stanford.edu.
Marco Tabellini, Assistant Professor, Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit, Harvard Business School, United States, mtabellini@hbs.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do social group boundaries evolve? Does the appearance of a new out-group change the in-group’s perceptions of other out-groups? We introduce a conceptual framework of context-dependent categorization in which exposure to one minority leads to recategorization of other minorities as in- or out-groups depending on perceived distances across groups. We test this framework by studying how Mexican immigration to the United States affected white Americans’ attitudes and behaviors toward Black Americans. We combine survey and crime data with a difference-in-differences design and an instrumental variables strategy. Consistent with the theory, Mexican immigration improves whites’ racial attitudes, increases support for pro-Black government policies, and lowers anti-Black hate crimes while simultaneously increasing prejudice against Hispanics. Results generalize beyond Hispanics and Blacks, and a survey experiment provides direct evidence for recategorization. Our findings imply that changes in the size of one group can affect the entire web of intergroup relations in diverse societies.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 116 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 968 - 984
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abascal, Maria. 2015. “Us and Them: Black-White Relations in the Wake of Hispanic Population Growth.” American Sociological Review 80 (4): 789–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acharya, Avidit, Blackwell, Matthew, and Sen, Maya. 2018. Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Allport, Gordon. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
ANES Cumulative File. 2015. Time Series Cumulative Data File (1948–2012) [computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Bergen: Universitet Ferlaget.Google Scholar
Bernhard, Helen, Fischbacher, Urs, and Fehr, Ernst. 2006. “Parochial Altruism in Humans.” Nature 442 (7105): 912–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blalock, Hubert M. 1967. Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert. 1958. “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Pacific Sociological Review 1 (1): 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence. 1983. “Whites’ Opposition to Busing: Symbolic Racism or Realistic Group Conflict?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (6): 1196–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Hutchings, Vincent L.. 1996. “Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer’s Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context.” American Sociological Review 61 (6): 951–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brader, Ted, Valentino, Nicholas A., and Suhay, Elizabeth. 2008. “What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (4): 959–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbado, Devon W. 2005. “Racial Naturalization.” American Quarterly 57 (3): 633–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Card, David. 2001. “Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration.” Journal of Labor Economics 19 (1): 22–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. 2006. “What is Ethnic Identity and Does it Matter?” Annual Review of Political Science 9: 397–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnysh, Volha, Lucas, Christopher, and Singh, Prerna. 2015. “The Ties that Bind: National Identity Salience and Pro-Social Behavior toward the Ethnic Other.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (3): 267–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Lauren. 2018. Politics Beyond Black and White: Biracial Identity and Attitudes in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Lauren. 2020. “The Fluidity of Racial Classifications.” Annual Review of Political Science 23: 221–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinas, Elias, Fouka, Vasiliki, and Schläpfer, Alain. 2021. “Family History and Attitudes towards Out-Groups: Evidence from the European Refugee Crisis.” Journal of Politics 83 (2): 647–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinesen, Peter Thisted, and Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar. 2015. “Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: Evidence from the Micro-Context.” American Sociological Review 80 (3): 550–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John H. 1994. The Social Psychology of Prejudice. Westport: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D.. 2000. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.” International Organization 54 (4): 845–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, Susan T., Amy, J. C. Cuddy, and Glick, Peter. 2007. “Universal Dimensions of Social Cognition: Warmth and Competence.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11 (2): 77–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fotheringham, A. Stewart, and David, W. S. Wong. 1991. “The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Multivariate Statistical Analysis.” Environment and Planning A 23 (7): 1025–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouka, Vasiliki, Mazumder, Soumyajit, and Tabellini, Marco. 2021. “From Immigrants to Americans: Race and Assimilation during the Great Migration.” Review of Economic Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouka, Vasiliki, and Tabellini, Marco. 2021. “Replication Data for: Changing In-Group Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the United States.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LH67QU.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freilich, Joshua D., and Chermak, Steven M.. 2013. Hate Crimes. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.Google Scholar
Gaertner, Samuel L., Dovidio, John F., Anastasio, Phyllis A., Bachman, Betty A., and Rust, Mary C.. 1993. “The Common In-Group Identity Model: Recategorization and the Reduction of Intergroup Bias.” European Review of Social Psychology 4 (1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, Claudine. 2006. “Seeing Difference: The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes toward Latinos.” American Journal of Political Science 50 (4): 982–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentzkow, Matthew, and Shapiro, Jesse M.. 2010. “What Drives Media Slant? Evidence from U.S. Daily Newspapers.” Econometrica 78 (1): 35–71.Google Scholar
Glaser, James M. 1994. “Back to the Black Belt: Racial Environment and White Racial Attitudes in the South.” Journal of Politics 56 (1): 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith-Pinkham, Paul, Sorkin, Isaac, and Swift, Henry. 2020. “Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How.” American Economic Review 110 (8): 2586–2624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Donald P., Strolovitch, Dara Z., and Wong, Janelle S.. 1998. “Defended Neighborhoods, Integration, and Racially Motivated Crime.” American Journal of Sociology 104 (2): 372–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ha, Shang E. 2010. “The Consequences of Multiracial Contexts on Public Attitudes toward Immigration.” Political Research Quarterly 63 (1): 29–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, and Hopkins, Daniel J.. 2014. “Public Attitudes toward Immigration.” Annual Review of Political Science 17: 225–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L., and Powell, Brenna Marea. 2008. “Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850-1930: Mulattoes, Half-Breeds, Mixed Parentage, Hindoos, and the Mexican Race.” Studies in American Political Development 22 (1): 59–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel J. 2009. “The Diversity Discount: When Increasing Ethnic and Racial Diversity Prevents Tax Increases.” Journal of Politics 71 (1): 160–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel J. 2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review 104 (1): 40–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, R. Robert, and Sprague, John. 1995. Citizens, Politics and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. “The Hispanic Challenge.” Foreign Policy March/April: 30–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchings, Vincent L., and Wong, Cara. 2014. “Racism, Group Position, and Attitudes about Immigration among Blacks and Whites.” Du Bois Review 11 (2): 419–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Eric, and Goodwin, Matthew J.. 2018. “The Diversity Wave: A Meta-Analysis of the Native-Born White Response to Ethnic Diversity.” Social Science Research 76: 120–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinder, Donald R., and Kam, Cindy K.. 2010. Us against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sears, David O.. 1981. “Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism versus Racial Threats to the Good Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40 (3): 414–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Mendelberg, Tali. 1995. “Cracks in American Apartheid: The Political Impact of Prejudice among Desegregated whites.” Journal of Politics 57 (2): 402–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurzban, Robert, Tooby, John, and Cosmides, Leda. 2001. “Can Race Be Erased? Coalitional Computation and Social Categorization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98 (26): 15387–392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laitin, David D. 1995. “Marginality: A Microperspective.” Rationality and Society 7 (1): 31–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew S. 2018. “Americans, Not Partisans: Can Priming American National Identity Reduce Affective Polarization?” Journal of Politics 80 (1): 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manson, Steven, Schroeder, Jonathan, Van Riper, David, and Ruggles, Steven. 2019. IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 14.0 [computer file]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota [distributor].Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Pren, Karen A.. 2012. “Unintended Consequences of U.S. Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America.” Population and Development Review 38 (1): 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masuoka, Natalie, and Junn, Jane. 2013. The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion, and Immigration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClain, Paula D., Lyle, Monique L., Carter, Niambi M., DeFrancesco Soto, Victoria M., Lackey, Gerald F., Cotton, Kendra Davenport, Nunnally, Shayla C., Scotto, Thomas J., Jeffrey, D. Grynaviski, J., and Kendrick, Alan. 2007. “Black Americans and Latino immigrants in a Southern City: Friendly Neighbors or Economic Competitors?” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 4 (1): 97–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClain, Paula D., Carter, Niambi M., Soto, Victoria M. DeFrancesco, Lyle, Monique L., Grynaviski, Jeffrey D., Nunnally, Shayla C., Scotto, Thomas J., Kendrick, J. Alan, Lackey, Gerald F., and Cotton, Kendra Davenport. 2006. “Racial Distancing in a Southern City: Latino Immigrants’ Views of Black Americans.” Journal of Politics 68 (3): 571–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGarty, Craig. 1999. Categorization in Social Psychology. London: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Kenneth J., McClain, Paula D., Polinard, Jerry L., and Wrinkle, Robert D.. 2004. “Divided or Together? Conflict and Cooperation between African Americans and Latinos.” Political Research Quarterly 57 (3): 399–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Benjamin J. 2012. “Acculturating Contexts and Anglo Opposition to Immigration in the United States.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (2): 374–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Benjamin J., and Johnson, Joshua. 2012. “Ethnic Change, Concern over Immigration, and Approval of State Government.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 12 (4): 415–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Benjamin J., and Velez, Yamil. 2014. “Group Size versus Change? Assessing Americans’ Perception of Local Immigration.” Political Research Quarterly 67 (2): 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Benjamin J., Velez, Yamil, Hartman, Todd K., and Bankert, Alexa. 2015. “Are Citizens ‘Receiving the Treatment’? Assessing a Key Link in Contextual Theories of Public Opinion and Political Behavior.” Political Psychology 36 (1): 123–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, Eric J., and Wong, Janelle. 2003. “Intergroup Prejudice in Multiethnic Settings.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (4): 567–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas F. 1997. “Generalized Intergroup Contact Effects on Prejudice.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23 (2): 173–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pottie-Sherman, Yolande, and Wilkes, Rima. 2017. “Does Size Really Matter? On the Relationship between Immigrant Group Size and Anti-Immigrant Prejudice.” International Migration Review 51 (1): 218–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasul, Imran, and McConnell, Brendon. 2021. “Contagious Animosity in the Field: Evidence from the Federal Criminal Justice System.” Journal of Labor Economics 39 (3): 739–85.Google Scholar
Roth, Wendy D., and Kim, Nadia Y.. 2013. “Relocating Prejudice: A Transnational Approach to Understanding Immigrants’ Racial Attitudes.” International Migration Review 47 (2): 330–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, Flood, Sarah, Goeken, Ronald, Grover, Josiah, and Meyer, Erin. 2019. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 9.0 [computer file]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota [distributor].Google Scholar
Shayo, Moses. 2009. “A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution.” American Political Science Review 103 (2): 147–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shayo, Moses. 2020. “Social Identity and Economic Policy.” Annual Review of Economics 12: 355–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Alexandra A., and Badaan, Vivienne. 2020. “#No2Sectarianism: Experimental Approaches to Reducing Sectarian Hate Speech Online.” American Political Science Review 114 (3): 837–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Wilkes, Alan L.. 1963. “Classification and Quantitative Judgment.” British Journal of Psychology 54 (2): 101–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, and Turner, John. 1986. The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. In Psychology of Intergroup Relations, eds. Worchel, Stephen and Austin, William G., 276–93. Chicago: Nelson Hall.Google Scholar
Cho, Tam, Wendy, K., and Baer, Neil. 2011. “Environmental Determinants of Racial Attitudes Redux: The Critical Decisions Related to Operationalizing Context.” American Politics Research 39 (2): 414–36.Google Scholar
Turner, John C., Hogg, Michael A., Oakes, Penelope J., Reicher, Stephen D., and Wetherell, Margaret S.. 1987. Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Turner, John C., Oakes, Penelope J., Haslam, S. Alexander, and McGarty, Craig. 1994. “Self and Collective: Cognition and Social Context.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 20 (5): 454–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 2015. Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines and Training Manual. Washington, DC: Criminal Justice Information Services, Division Uniform Crime Reporting Program.Google Scholar
United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 2018. Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data: Hate Crime Data (Record-Type Files), United States [computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].Google Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., and Sears, David O.. 2005. “Old Times There Are Not Forgotten: Race and Partisan Realignment in the Contemporary South.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (3): 672–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., Brader, Ted, and Jardina, Ashley E.. 2013. “Immigration Opposition among U.S. whites: General Ethnocentrism or Media Priming of Attitudes about Latinos?” Political Psychology 34 (2): 149–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velez, Yamil, and Wong, Ricardo Grace. 2017. “Assessing Contextual Measurement Strategies.” Journal of Politics 79 (3): 1084–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigert, Kathleen M. 1976. “Intergroup Contact and Attitudes about Third-Group: A Survey of Black Soldiers’ Perceptions.” International Journal of Group Tensions 6 (1–2): 110–24.Google Scholar
Wong, Cara, Bowers, Jake, Williams, Tarah, and Simmons, Katherine Drake. 2012. “Bringing the Person Back In: Boundaries, Perceptions, and the Measurement of Racial Context.” Journal of Politics 74 (4): 1153–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zajonc, Robert B. 1980. “Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences.” American Psychologist 35 (2): 151–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Fouka and Tabellini Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LH67QU
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Fouka and Tabellini supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Fouka and Tabellini supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 350.6 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.