Beyond anti-urban sentiment: Rural consciousness and affect toward undocumented immigrants

Abstract

Stricter immigration attitudes are associated with rurality. I argue that rural consciousness can help explain this tendency; those Americans higher in rural consciousness should theoretically see undocumented immigrants as a lower-status out-group unduly favored by decision-makers. Using ANES data, I find that colder feelings toward undocumented/illegal immigrants and harsher immigration policy attitudes significantly and positively associate with rural consciousness for rural/small-town residents. This is not moderated by partisanship or racial resentment, though the effect is stronger for non-whites. Further, exposure to an experimental treatment article sympathizing with rural way of life being disrespected – i.e., highlighting rural people being disrespected, which is an element of rural consciousness– results in significantly warmer feelings toward undocumented immigrants for rural/small-town respondents compared to those in the control condition. Conversely, exposure to an article about racial demographic changes in rural areas, or to a lagging rural economic recovery article, did not consistently or significantly affect the outcome variable. This study both confirms links between rural resentment or consciousness in similar contexts, while providing evidence that such a relationship is driven by feelings of in-group disrespect over economic or racial/ethnic threat.