| Popis: |
In this paper, I examine the puzzle of public opinion support of immigrants and refugees, with focus on competeting identities and threat perceptions. I use the ANES 2016 Pilot Study to investigate how support for US entry of Syrian refugees changes, according to perceptions of the viability of local terrorist threat and ethnocentrism. This is important, as the issue saliency of refugees has increased over the past few years, especially during and after the 2016 presidential election. Moreover, I compare support of legal migration and refugee migration to understand if Americans differentiate of who is more worthy of US entry. I find that as respondents believe that a terrorist attack in their area is possible, support for refugees decreases to a greater degree than support for legal immigration. Also important in determining support for immigration is the importance of racial and American identity. This leaves us with important normative questions of how we include vulnerable populations by the type of identity we have present in our minds. |
