What Makes a Citizen? Contemporary Immigration and the Boundaries of Citizenry.

How do native-born Americans evaluate citizenship claims made by immigrant groups? Prior research identifies three broad patterns: respondents (1) make judgments based on immigrants' willingness to adhere to national norms and civic values, (2) rely on ethnoracial cues, and (3) rely on economic cues...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social Forces Vol. 102; no. 2; pp. 730 - 753
Main Authors: Adem, Muna, Ambriz, Denise
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Dec2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=172954874&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 172954874
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00377732
        SFR
      jtl: Social Forces
      issn: 00377732
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Dec2023
      vid: 102
      iid: 2
      pid: 622
      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
    artinfo:
      ui:
        172954874
        10.1093/sf/soad099
      ppf: 730
      ppct: 23
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 856KB
      tig:
        atl: What Makes a Citizen? Contemporary Immigration and the Boundaries of Citizenry.
      aug:
        au:
          Adem, Muna
          Ambriz, Denise
        affil:
          University of Maryland
          Pitzer College
      su:
        Citizenship
        Immigrants
        Emigration & immigration
        Culture
        White people
        Hispanic Americans
      sug:
        subj:
          Citizenship
          Immigrants
          Emigration & immigration
          Culture
          White people
          Hispanic Americans
      ab: How do native-born Americans evaluate citizenship claims made by immigrant groups? Prior research identifies three broad patterns: respondents (1) make judgments based on immigrants' willingness to adhere to national norms and civic values, (2) rely on ethnoracial cues, and (3) rely on economic cues. Using a conjoint survey experiment, this is the first study to examine how these patterns hold across two distinct dimensions of citizenship—legal membership (being considered a citizen of the state) and cultural membership (being perceived as a fellow American). The results reveal that legal status and age of arrival are powerful determinants for attitudes toward legal membership. By contrast, ethnoracial boundaries have a more significant impact on cultural membership, even after accounting for key predictors, such as legal status and English proficiency. Moreover, we show that evaluations of citizenship claims differ for White and non-White Americans in meaningful ways. Compared to White respondents, Black and Latino respondents express higher levels of ingroup preference for legal membership, and Latinos are significantly more likely to use an inclusive definition of cultural membership. In tandem, these results highlight the importance of measuring citizenship as a multidimensional concept and the limitations of focusing on the dominant group to understand immigration attitudes in contemporary diverse societies.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N