The Perceptions of Self and Others: Examining The Effect Identity Adoption has on Immigrant Attitudes toward Affirmative Action Policies in the United States

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-14-2011

Publication Title

Immigrants and Minorities

Volume

29

Issue

1

First page number:

86

Last page number:

109

Abstract

While there exist several studies devoted to evaluating the political attitudes of US citizens, very little has been done to distinguish between the political attitudes of immigrants and citizens of the same racial or ethnic group. Using data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, 1992-94, this study evaluates the role identity adoption plays in highlighting the distinctions which exist between the political attitudes of immigrants and those of US citizens from the same racial/ethnic group. The results reveal that despite pronounced cultural distinctions between immigrants and US citizens, in many cases race and ethnicity are important unifiers on opinions regarding public policy issues, specifically that of affirmative action. This is an important finding because it suggests that there is some homogeneity of attitudes and public opinions for racial and ethnic groups, regardless of citizenship or immigrant background. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords

Affirmative action policy; Ethnicity; Identity adoption; Immigrants; Race

Disciplines

American Politics | Public Policy | Urban Studies

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