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Population density, cosmopolitanism, and undocumented immigrants in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2022

Ari Adut  and
Harris Hyun-Soo Kim
Ari Adut
Affiliation:
University of Texas, USA [ariadut@austin.utexas.edu]
Harris Hyun-Soo Kim
Affiliation:
Ewha Womans University, South Korea [harrishkim@ewha.ac.kr].
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Abstract

Most research on attitudes towards immigrants and immigration problematically conflates the documented and the undocumented. Previous studies also largely ignore the autonomous role of population density. Based on data drawn from two nationally representative surveys, this paper focuses on contemporary American attitudes towards undocumented immigration and immigrants. Contra the dominant view, we find that education and income have no effect. More important, population density, measured at the county level, significantly predicts favorable attitudes, controlling for factors often erroneously conflated with density: race, income, education, political affiliation, age, gender, and interaction with immigrants. In fact, interaction tends to decrease favorable attitudes. We explain these findings by proposing a novel account of cosmopolitanism, using favorable attitudes towards undocumented immigrants and immigration as an empirical indicator. Those who live in places with higher density are more used to see and be seen in everyday life by countless people with whom they share the same spaces without necessarily interacting with them. As a result, they are more likely to consider all them, including undocumented immigrants, in a superficial yet egalitarian way as generalized others to be ignored. It is this tolerance based on general indifference that is the basis of cosmopolitanism.

Résumé

Résumé

La plupart des recherches sur les attitudes à l’égard des immigrés et de l’immigration confondent de manière problématique les personnes avec et sans papiers. Les études antérieures ignorent aussi largement le rôle autonome de la densité de population. Basé sur des données tirées de deux enquêtes représentatives au niveau national, cet article se concentre sur les attitudes américaines contemporaines envers l’immigration sans papiers et les immigrants. Contrairement à l’opinion dominante, nous constatons que l’éducation et le revenu n’ont aucun effet. Plus important encore, la densité de population, mesurée au niveau du comté, prédit de manière significative les attitudes favorables, en contrôlant les facteurs souvent confondus à tort avec la densité : race, revenu, éducation, affiliation politique, âge, sexe et interaction avec les immigrants. En fait, l’interaction tend à diminuer les attitudes favorables. Nous expliquons ces résultats en proposant une nouvelle explication du cosmopolitisme, en utilisant les attitudes favorables envers les sans-papiers et l’immigration comme indicateur empirique. Ceux qui vivent dans des lieux à plus forte densité sont plus habitués à voir et à être vus au quotidien par d’innombrables personnes avec qui ils partagent les mêmes espaces sans nécessairement interagir avec eux. En conséquence, ils sont plus susceptibles de les considérer tous, y compris les immigrés sans papiers, de manière superficielle mais égalitaire comme des autruis génériques à ignorer. C’est cette tolérance fondée sur l’indifférence générale qui est à la base du cosmopolitisme.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Die meisten Forschungsarbeiten, die sich der Haltung gegenüber Einwanderern und Einwanderung widmen, verwechseln auf problematische Weise jene mit und ohne Papiere. Hinzukommt, dass frühere Studien die autonome Rolle der Bevölkerungsdichte weitgehend außer Acht lassen. Der Beitrag nutzt die Daten zweier landesweit repräsentativen Erhebungen, um die zeitgenössische Einstellung der Amerikaner gegenüber papierloser Einwanderung und Einwanderern zu dokumentieren. Entgegen der vorherrschenden Meinung stellen wir fest, dass Bildung und Einkommen keinen Einfluss haben. Entscheidender für eine signifikante Vorhersage einer positiven Einstellung ist die auf Bezirksebene gemessene Bevölkerungsdichte, wobei Faktoren, die oft fälschlicherweise mit der Dichte verwechselt werden, kontrolliert werden: Rasse, Einkommen, Bildung, politische Zugehörigkeit, Alter, Geschlecht und Interaktion mit Einwanderern. Tatsächlich verringert die Interaktion tendenziell positive Einstellungen. Diese Ergebnisse erklären wir, indem wir eine neue Beschreibung des Kosmopolitismus vorschlagen, der auf einer positiven Einstellung gegenüber papierlosen Einwanderern und Einwanderung als empirischem Indikator fusst. Diejenigen, die an Orten mit höherer Bevölkerungsdichte leben, sind es eher gewohnt, im Alltag unzählige Menschen zu sehen und von ihnen gesehen zu werden, mit denen sie dieselben Räume teilen, ohne unbedingt mit ihnen zu interagieren. Infolgedessen ist es wahrscheinlicher, dass sie sich alle, einschließlich der papierlosen Einwanderern, in einer oberflächlichen, aber egalitären Weise als verallgemeinerte Andere betrachten, die es zu ignorieren gilt. Diese auf einer allgemeinen Gleichgültigkeit beruhende Toleranz ist die Grundlage des Kosmopolitismus.

Keywords

Anti-immigrant AttitudesUndocumented ImmigrationPopulation DensityCosmopolitanism.Attitudes anti-immigrésImmigration sans papiersDensité de populationCosmopolitismeAnti-EinwanderungsverhaltensweisenEinwanderungBevölkerungsdichteKosmopolitismus.
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , April 2022 , pp. 87 - 129
Copyright
© European Journal of Sociology, 2022

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Footnotes

Author contributions are equal. The authors are grateful to Nancy Foner, Philip Kasinitz, Arthur Sakamoto, Van Tran, and anonymous reviewers for their very helpul comments and suggestions.

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