Determinants of Perceived Immigrant Job Threat in the American States

Abstract

In the United States, the 2000s were marked by record numbers of immigrants and heightened levels of pro- and anti-immigrant agitation. As a result, research investigating anti-immigrant prejudice in the United States and other societies has surged. In this article, the authors investigate the determinants of perceived immigrant job threat in the fifty U.S. states in 2005. They draw upon three theoretical perspectives that dominate the study of prejudice—group threat theory, contact theory, and cultural theory—but move beyond these established theories to adduce three new perspectives, which they label economic competition, labor market deregulation, and globalization. The authors find support for all six perspectives. The three new perspectives augment, rather than supplant, the traditional theories. The authors find that levels of perceived immigrant job threat tend to increase in settings where there is economic stagnation, where labor unions are growing weaker, where the minimum wage is low, and where corporate restructuring has taken place.