Identifying Asian American Attitudes Toward Immigration: Testing Theories of Acculturation, Group Consciousness, and Context Effects

Abstract

In this study, I test a model of competing theoretical explanations of Asian American attitudes toward immigration by studying the effects of acculturation, group consciousness and political commonality with other groups, and contextual factors. Using the 2018 Civic Engagement and Political Participation of Asian American Survey, Asian Americans’ policy preferences on Syrian refugees, Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Muslim travel ban, and a border wall are examined. Multinomial logistic regression analyses reveal that acculturation explains positive attitudes toward immigration among Asian Americans whereas factors such as Asian identity, political commonality with other racial groups, and the perceived racial mix of neighborhoods have limited and mixed influence on Asian American immigration attitudes. As one of very few studies on immigrants’ attitudes toward immigration policies, this study contributes to our better understanding of how the fastest-growing immigrant group like Asian Americans determine their attitudes toward policies that target immigrants.