Factors Influencing Support for Immigration Reform: Analysis from the 2013 Religion, Values, and Immigration Reform Survey

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the influence of four factors that previous literature suggests influence support for immigration reform: perceptions of economic threat, perceptions of cultural threat, social contact with immigrants, and attendance at religious services. We also explore the power of these factors among two religious groups that have been active in the immigration reform debates over the last decade, Catholics and white evangelical Protestants. Among these groups, we also investigate the power of one of the key theological messages used by Catholic and evangelical leaders in their advocacy for immigration reform, the message of “welcoming the stranger.”