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Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, ... But Make Sure They Have a Green Card: The Effects of Documented and Undocumented Migrant Context on Anglo Opinion Toward Immigration

Political Behavior volume 20, pages 1–15 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Although few controversies in our political environment are as contentious as the current debate over immigration policy, the research on public opinion toward immigration is quite limited. In particular, we know relatively little about the contextual determinants of opinions on immigration issues. We address this issue by investigating the impact of migrant context on Anglo opinions toward immigration. We find that Anglo support for increased immigration is directly related to the size of the documented migrant population. Conversely, as the relative size of the undocumented migrant population increases, Anglo support for increased immigration decreases. We conclude with a discussion of the relevance of our findings for the study of immigration opinion, in particular, and the study of intergroup relations more generally.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Visiting Professor, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409-1015;

    M. V. Hood III & Irwin L. Morris

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  1. M. V. Hood III
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  2. Irwin L. Morris
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Correspondence to Irwin L. Morris.

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Hood, M.V., Morris, I.L. Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, ... But Make Sure They Have a Green Card: The Effects of Documented and Undocumented Migrant Context on Anglo Opinion Toward Immigration. Political Behavior 20, 1–15 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024839032001

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024839032001

Keywords

  • Public Opinion
  • Relative Size
  • Population Increase
  • Immigration Policy
  • Migrant Population