Friends or Foes: The Impact of Political Ideology and Immigrant Friends on Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Background and Purpose:  The U.S. hosts a significantly larger foreign-born population than any other nation.  However, in recent decades, there has been a growing tide of decisively anti-immigrant sentiment and policies, leading to increased perceived discrimination and hardship for many immigrants.  Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies tend to be derived from and promulgated by politically conservative groups.  Empirical evidence supports the link between conservatism and harboring disfavor for immigrants.

Meanwhile, according to Intergroup Contact Theory, increased contact between in-group (i.e., natives) and out-group members (i.e., immigrants) reduces intergroup prejudice; cross-group friendships have a particularly strong prejudice reducing effect.  This study examines the impact of political ideology and having immigrant friends on anti-immigrant sentiment.  We hypothesize that anti-immigrant sentiment will be positively related to conservative political ideology and negatively associated with having immigrant friends; further, we expect having immigrant friends to attenuate the relationship between conservative political ideology and anti-immigrant sentiment. 

Methods:  Nationally representative U.S.-based data from the Transatlantic Trends, 2013 dataset were analyzed for the present study (n = 1,000).  A multi-stage random sampling method was employed to collect cross-sectional data related to a number of foreign policy and transatlantic issues, including attitudes about immigration.  Participants had a mean age of 55.4 years (SD = 18.1); the majority was white (76%), female (52%), and had a high school diploma (38%) or college degree (36%).  Participants had a mean political ideology score of 4.38 (SD = 1.49; range: 1-7; higher = more conservatism); 65% reported having immigrant friends (0 = no, 1 = yes).  A 5-item scale (α = .778) was used to assess anti-immigrant sentiment (M = 2.30; SD = 1.74; range: 0-5; higher = more anti-immigrant).  Using a 3-step hierarchical regression model in Mplus with a weight command to increase generalizability, we tested the direct and moderation effects of political ideology and immigrant friends on anti-immigrant sentiment.

Results:  Controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, nativity, parents’ nativity, education, and religious affiliation, findings revealed that more conservative political ideology was associated with greater anti-immigrant sentiment (β = .143, p < .001).  Having immigrant friends was linked with less anti-immigrant sentiment (β = -.106, p < .01).  The political ideology-by-immigrant friends interaction term was not significant (β = .067, p = .239).

Conclusions and Implications:  While political ideology and immigrant friends each had a significant but opposite main effect on anti-immigrant sentiment, having immigrant friends did not moderate or buffer the effects of political ideology on Americans’ anti-immigrant sentiment.  Thus, aligning with a conservative political ideology is associated with anti-immigrant sentiment irrespective of having immigrant friends.  In line with Intergroup Contact Theory, findings have implications for social work strategies to increase intergroup contact and cross-group friendships between natives and immigrants.  These efforts are particularly important for the field of social work, as the positive outcomes of intergroup contact extend to the entire out-group and to other out-groups through secondary effects (Pettigrew, 2009).  Additionally, social workers should engage in community education and grassroots advocacy to offset the negative effects of anti-immigrant political propaganda.