Social Identity Theory and Public Opinion towards Immigration

Maruice Mangum and Ray Block
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Maruice Mangum: Department of Social Sciences, Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, AL 35762, USA
Ray Block: Political Science Department and African American and Africana Studies Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, KY, USA

Social Sciences, 2018, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Several scholars have called upon social identity theory to investigate the relationship between an American national identity and American public opinion on immigration. Lacking a uniform measure of American identity, by and large, scholars find that a two-dimensional conception of American identity influences these opinions. Our review suggests that the extant measures of American identity do not fully account for the various aspects of social identity theory. We capture more fully the different components of social identity theory. By doing so, we find that American identity has five dimensions. Therefore, in this analysis, we advance a more comprehensive measure of American identity. Analyzing data from the 2004–2005 National Politics Survey, we confirm that all five dimensions of American identity lead to opposition to legal immigration and a preference for spending increases to combat illegal immigration.

Keywords: American identity; social identity theory; legal immigration; illegal immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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