This Land Is (Not) Your Land: Race and Ascripted Americanness in the Formation of Attitudes about Immigrants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Race consistently patterns anti-immigrant bias. However, it is less clear if all racial groups define “being American” in the same way. This work explores the ways ascribed characteristics that define being “American,” termed Ascripted Americanness, potentially contributes to racial variation in attitudes toward immigrants. Using the 2004 & 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1,774), results show that emphasizing any facet of Ascripted Americanness, particularly US ancestry, correlates to anti-immigrant hostility. Furthermore, the connection between Ascripted Americanness and hostility tends to be more pronounced for white adults compared to black or Latinx adults. Ultimately, these findings reveal that hostility toward immigrants is shaped by the racialization of symbolic boundaries around “being American.”