Exploring the relationship between national identity and attitudes towards immigrants in the United States

ABSTRACT As of 2018, there were more than 44.7 million immigrants residing, both lawfully and unlawfully, in the United States [Batalova, J., Blizzard, B., & Bolter, J. (2020, February 14). Frequently requested statistics on immigrants and immigration in the United States. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states]. Understanding the attitudes of U.S. citizens towards immigrants is necessary because of the impact that attitudes can have on policy development and the subsequent national treatment of immigrants based on those policies. This article utilizes a framework of national identity which suggests that this construct is comprised of three separate elements: nativism, emotionality, and behavior. Using U.S. citizen response data from three waves of the National Identity module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) from 1995, 2003, and 2013, multivariate linear regressions were used to explore the relationship between this framework and attitudes towards immigrants. Findings indicated that there were statistically significant relationships between respondents’ perceptions of national identity and attitudes towards immigrants.