Pathways to Support for Integrationist Immigration Policymaking among U.S.-born Whites: Testing the Deprovincialization Hypothesis of the Intergroup Contact Theory and the Role of Latino Immigrant Threat Perception by Elizabeth Kiehne A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Social Work Approved April 2019 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: David Becerra, Chair Katie Stalker David Androff ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2019 ABSTRACT Nearly 11 million immigrants in the United States, three-quarters of which are Latino, lack legal authorization to live and work in the country; nonetheless, the majority of these individuals have resideD in the U.S. for a decade or more and have profound social, emotional, cultural, and economic ties to the country (Passel & Cohn, 2018). Despite being deeply embedded in their communities, the dominant policy response involves increaseD immigration enforcement and advancing a hostile socio-political context (Gulasekaram & Ramakishnan, 2015). This policy approach comes at a great cost to immigrant and Latino communities throughout the U.S. and is largely ineffective. Accordingly, many advocates and stakeholders, including the National Association of Social Workers (2017), argue for policies that integrate “unauthorized permanent residents” (Martínez, Slack, & Martínez- Schuldt, 2018). The primary purpose of this study was to understand strategies that can be leveraged to builD support for integrationist policymaking. Among a sample of U.S.-born white college students (n=708), intensive, community, and college contact with Latino immigrants and people of color were assessed; the relationships between intergroup contact and support for integrationist policymaking were examined. To better understand the contact-policy attitudes relationship, the deprovincialization hypothesis of the intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011) and the Latino threat narrative (Chavez, 2013) were merged and testeD as a serial pathway by which contact and policy attitudes may be relateD. Findings revealed intensive and community contact with Latino immigrants and people of color relateD to more support for integrationist legislation. In most cases, these i effects were direct as well as indirect through the ethnocentrismàthreat attitudes pathway. Ethnocentrism fully accounted for the relationships between intensive and community intergroup contact and threat attitudes. These findings have several implications for intervention. First, in the long-term struggle for immigrant integration, intergroup interaction between whites and people of color should be promoteD, and the importance of casual intergroup contact should not be dismissed. Interventions that reduce social segregation are needeD, as well as efforts to effectively harness the ethnic- racial diversity that presently exists. Cross-group exposure interventions that aim to overcome ethnocentric tendencies should be implemented. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. David Becerra, who sparked in me an interest in research in the service of social justice and mentored me through the dissertation process. I would also like to thank Dr. Katie Stalker who made herself available for statistical and methodological support, as well as Dr. David Androff who supported me in navigating various aspects of academia. I am grateful for my husband, family, and beloved friends for supporting me in this endeavor and helping me reach the finish line and beyond. Thank you for all the ways you showed up for Josiah, Ofelia, and I over the past few years. It took a village! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 1 U.S. Demographic Shift .................................................................................... 1 Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S. ............................................................... 2 Creation of Unauthorized Permanent Resident Population .............................. 3 Development of Unauthorized Immigration ................................................ 3 Settlement of Unauthorized Immigrants ...................................................... 5 Federal Response to Unauthorized Resident Immigrant Population ............... 6 Subfederal Response to Unauthorized Resident Immigrant Population .......... 8 Latino Threat Narrative ..................................................................................... 8 Ethnocentric Foundations of the Latino Threat Narrative .............................. 10 Human Costs of the Restrictionist Approach ................................................. 11 Detention and Deportation ......................................................................... 11 Discrimination ............................................................................................ 12 Ineffectiveness of the Restrictionist Approach ............................................... 13 A New Approach: Integrationism ................................................................... 15 Call for an Integrationist Approach ................................................................ 16 Current Study ................................................................................................... 18 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................. 20 iv CHAPTER Page Social Identity Theory as a Guiding Grand Theory ........................................ 20 Intergroup Contact Theory .............................................................................. 21 Empirical Support for the Contact Effect .................................................. 23 Importance of Cross-Group Friendships .................................................... 25 Explanatory Variables of the Contact Effect ............................................. 26 Secondary Transfer Effect .......................................................................... 27 Deprovincialization Hypothesis ................................................................. 28 Ethnocentrism .................................................................................................. 29 Conceptual Analysis of Multidimensional Ethnocentrism ........................ 30 Empirical Support for Multidimensional Ethnocentrism .......................... 34 Integrated Threat Theory ................................................................................. 34 Realistic Threat Perception ........................................................................ 35 Symbolic Threat Perception ....................................................................... 36 Negative Stereotypes and Intergroup Anxiety ........................................... 37 Prior Research ................................................................................................. 38 Intergroup Contact and Attitudes toward Immigrants/Immigration .......... 39 Intergroup Contact and Ethnocentrism ...................................................... 41 Intergroup Contact and Intergroup Threat Perception ............................... 42 Ethnocentrism and Intergroup Threat Perception ...................................... 43 Ethnocentrism and Immigration Policy Attitudes ..................................... 43 Intergroup Threat Perception and Immigration Policy Attitudes .............. 44 Theoretical and Empirical Gaps in the Literature ........................................... 44 v CHAPTER Page Research Questions and Hypotheses .............................................................. 46 3 METHOD ........................................................................................................... 48 Procedure ......................................................................................................... 48 Scale Development and Initial Validation ...................................................... 50 Participants ................................................................................................. 51 Data Screening ............................................................................................ 54 Latino Immigrant Threat Attitudes Item Development ............................. 54 Immigration Policy Attitudes Item Development ...................................... 58 Stage 1 Analytic Plan ................................................................................. 59 Assumptions Testing ............................................................................. 59 Factor Extraction ................................................................................... 60 Estimation and Interpretation ................................................................ 61 Stage 2 Analytic Plan ................................................................................. 62 Model Specification ............................................................................. 62 Model Evaluation .................................................................................. 63 Model Respecification ........................................................................... 64 Stage 3 Analytic Plan ................................................................................