The Effects of Perceived Threat, Political Orientation, and Framing on Public Reactions to Punitive Immigration Law Enforcement Practices
2016; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/2332649216660117
ISSN2332-6506
AutoresJoshua Woods, Agnieszka Marciniak,
Tópico(s)Migration, Refugees, and Integration
ResumoThis study explores variation in people’s reactions to a punitive immigration law enforcement practice. Using a vignette-styled framing-effects experiment, we examined whether reactions to the practice depend, in part, on who receives its consequences. More than 500 undergraduates from a large Mid-Atlantic university read a brief vignette about an immigrant motorist who is stopped by a police officer for a broken taillight violation and then detained for failing to document his legal immigration status. We manipulated three characteristics of the motorist in the vignette, including his nationality (Mexico/Canada), occupation (factory worker/software engineer), and documentation status (documented/undocumented). When we framed the motorist as an unauthorized immigrant, the subjects were more likely to condone the officer’s intrusive actions. We also found that the subjects’ political orientation and immigrant threat perceptions were powerful predictors of their normative reactions to the vignette.
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