Interregional Migration and Racial Attitudes

Abstract

Inferences from the race relations literature suggest two competing sets of hypotheses concerning the effect of interregional migration on racial attitudes. From normative theory we hypothesize that the effect of migration is symmetrical-such that migration to and from the South influence attitudes equally-and that acculturation to local attitudes is equally incomplete among South-non-South and non-South-South migrants. From the assumption that southern race norms are stronger and more important than those elsewhere, we hypothesize that the effect of migration and the completeness of acculturation will be greater among nonSouth-South than South-non-South migrants. Using data from a national sample of 2,232 white respondents, we find support for the first set of hypotheses. Our evidence suggests that there is now no difference between the strength and importance of southern and nonsouthern race norms, and that interregional migration may partially explain the convergence of regions in racial attitudes as well as the recent nationwide slowing of liberalization of racial attitudes. That racial attitudes are acquired through socialization is a commonplace in race relations literature, as is the generalization that norms supportive of intolerant racial attitudes are stronger in the southern United States than in other regions of the country (i.e., the non-South). However, interregional migration's effects on migrants' attitudes remain uncertain, and this study attempts to shed light on them. Racial Attitudes and Region The normative theory of prejudice explains that persons' racial attitudes result from their internalization of the norms of their culture (Westie 1964; see also Barth and Noel 1972; Raab and Lipset 1965; Rose 1958; Simpson and Yinger 1972; and a review in Harding et al. 1969).1 Both early and adult socialization are crucial to internalization of race norms, and when *Address correspondence to the author, Department of Sociology University Square, Gannon Unilversity, Erie, PA 16541. C 1986 The University of North Carolina Press