Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Impressions of Immigration: Comparisons between Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Children's Immigration Beliefs

Impressions of Immigration: Comparisons between Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Children's Immigration... Immigration is a frequently debated topic in American politics and media, yet little work examined children's understanding of this issue. In order to explore how children's understanding of immigration may differ based on their immigration experience, 261 elementary school‐aged children (M = 9 years; SD = 1 year, 1 month) answered open‐ended questions regarding why people move to the United States and why it should be legal or not. The sample consisted of 196 immigrants (first and second generation Latino/a immigrants) and 65 nonimmigrants (non‐Latino/a children living in America for at least three generations). Children also rated possible explanations for societal antiimmigration attitudes. As predicted, Latino/a immigrant children explained immigration as a means of attaining concrete benefits for immigrants, such as improved education or jobs. They also referenced reuniting with family members in the U.S. Nonimmigrant children focused more on immigrants seeking American freedoms, reflecting the school‐based curriculum explaining early European immigration to the U.S. Results reflect how differing experiences with immigration (direct or indirect) may influence perceptions towards immigration. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy Wiley

Impressions of Immigration: Comparisons between Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Children's Immigration Beliefs

Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/impressions-of-immigration-comparisons-between-immigrant-and-Zh05TZ2rnv
Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2015 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
ISSN
1529-7489
eISSN
1530-2415
DOI
10.1111/asap.12067
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Immigration is a frequently debated topic in American politics and media, yet little work examined children's understanding of this issue. In order to explore how children's understanding of immigration may differ based on their immigration experience, 261 elementary school‐aged children (M = 9 years; SD = 1 year, 1 month) answered open‐ended questions regarding why people move to the United States and why it should be legal or not. The sample consisted of 196 immigrants (first and second generation Latino/a immigrants) and 65 nonimmigrants (non‐Latino/a children living in America for at least three generations). Children also rated possible explanations for societal antiimmigration attitudes. As predicted, Latino/a immigrant children explained immigration as a means of attaining concrete benefits for immigrants, such as improved education or jobs. They also referenced reuniting with family members in the U.S. Nonimmigrant children focused more on immigrants seeking American freedoms, reflecting the school‐based curriculum explaining early European immigration to the U.S. Results reflect how differing experiences with immigration (direct or indirect) may influence perceptions towards immigration.

Journal

Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2015

References

  • National identity and attitude toward foreigners in a multinational state: A replication
    Billiet, Billiet; Maddens, Maddens; Beerten, Beerten
  • Bias at school: Perceptions of racial/ethnic discrimination among Latino and European American children
    Brown, Brown
  • Ethnicity and gender in late childhood and early adolescence: Group identity and awareness of bias
    Brown, Brown; Alabi, Alabi; Huynh, Huynh; Masten, Masten
  • Children's perceptions of discrimination: A developmental model
    Brown, Brown; Bigler, Bigler
  • Beliefs about poverty and opportunity among Mexican immigrant farm workers
    Bullock, Bullock; Waugh, Waugh
  • Intergroup and within‐group perceived discrimination among U. S.‐born and foreign‐born Latino/a youth
    Córdova, Córdova; Cervantes, Cervantes
  • To be an American: Immigration, hyphenation, and incorporation
    Deaux, Deaux
  • Children's representation of economic inequalities: The effects of social class
    Emler, Emler; Dickinson, Dickinson
  • The role of agent and social context in judgments of freedom of speech and religion
    Helwig, Helwig
  • Children's conceptions of fair government and freedom of speech
    Helwig, Helwig
  • Increasing the complexity of young adolescents’ beliefs about poverty and inequality: Results of an 8 th grade social studies curriculum intervention
    Mistry, Mistry; Brown, Brown; Chow, Chow; Collins, Collins
  • Building a wall around the welfare state, instead of the country
    Nowrasteh, Nowrasteh; Cole, Cole
  • National identifications and attitudes to national ingroups and outgroups amongst children living in the Basque country
    Reizábel, Reizábel; Valencia, Valencia; Barrett, Barrett
  • Politics matters: Political events as catalysts for preadult socialization
    Sears, Sears; Valentino, Valentino
  • The polls‐trends: American public opinion on immigrants and immigration policy
    Segovia, Segovia; Defever, Defever
  • Predisposing factors and situational triggers: Exclusionary reactions to immigrant minorities
    Sniderman, Sniderman; Hagendoorn, Hagendoorn; Prior, Prior
  • Integrated threat theory and intercultural attitudes: Mexico and the United States
    Stephan, Stephan; Diaz‐Loving, Diaz‐Loving; Duran, Duran
  • The conceptualization and measurement of symbolic racism
    Tarman, Tarman; Sears, Sears
  • Children's conceptions of moral and prudential rules
    Tisak, Tisak; Turiel, Turiel
  • Differences in the civic knowledge and attitudes of adolescents in the United States by immigrant status and Hispanic background
    Torney‐Purta, Torney‐Purta; Barber, Barber; Wilkenfeld, Wilkenfeld
  • Support for multiculturalism and minority rights: The role of national identification and out‐group threat
    Verkuyten, Verkuyten
  • Preadolescents’ understanding of ethnic discrimination
    Verkuyten, Verkuyten; Kinket, Kinket; Wielen, Wielen
  • Preadolescents’ understanding and reasoning about asylum seeker peers and friendships
    Verkuyten, Verkuyten; Steenhuis, Steenhuis