HISPANIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN THE U.S.

1. HISPANIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN THE U.S. Kristy Nottingham kn4924a@american.edu American University School of International Service

2. RESEARCH QUESTION & HYPOTHESIS • Is whether one is native-born or foreign-born Hispanic the primary explanatory factor for one’s attitude towards illegal immigrants into the U.S.? What other factors might affect one’s attitude? • Ho: There is no statistically significant relationship between whether one is native or foreign born Hispanic and attitude towards illegal immigrants. There is no statistically significant relationship between any of the other independent variables and attitude. • H1: There is a significant relationship between one being foreign or native born and attitude towards illegal immigrants. All other independent variables will have a significant association on attitude towards illegal immigrants.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW • Suro and Escobar: 2006 National Survey of Latinos: The Immigration Debate • Purpose: To understand attitudes towards the immigration policy debate and the marches. • Key Findings: Latinos differ in opinion on the importance of immigration, but share similar opinions on the immigration debate and marches. • PEW Hispanic Center: Attitudes Toward Immigrants and and Immigration Policy • Purpose: Ascertain Latino opinions on attitudes towards legal immigrants, flow of immigrants to the U.S., and policy on unauthorized migrants. • Key Findings: A majority of Latinos have positive opinions towards legal immigrants, but there is a difference between native- and foreign-born Latinos. • PEW Hispanic Center and Kaiser Family Foundation: 2002 National Survey on Latinos • Purpose: Ascertain Latinos’ opinions on different social issues: gender roles, abortion, homosexuality. • Key Findings: “There is no single, homogenous Latino opinion”. Native-born Latinos are more likely to express attitudes similar to those of non-Latinos. • CONCLUSION: • While the reports do not specifically address my hypothesis, they demonstrate difference in attitudes between foreign- and native-born Latinos on certain issues.

4. DATA • Data is from PEW Hispanic Center’s 2007 National Survey on Latinos. The unit of analysis is Hispanic individuals in the U.S. The sample is large, at N=2000. • Dependent Variable: • d_attitude (q27) (ordinal): Is the effect of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. positive, negative, or has no impact? • d_attitude_recoded (ordinal): Is the effect positive or negative? • Independent Variables: • X1 is Age_recode (ordinal) • X2 is Level of Education (q51) (ordinal): What is the last grade or class you completed in school? • X3 is Employment Status (q52) (ordinal): Are you now employed full-time, part-time, or not employed? • X4 is Total Annual Income (q56) (ordinal): I your total annual household income from all sources, and taxes: • X5 is Country of Origin (q5) (nominal): Were you born on the island of Puerto Rico, in the U.S., or in another country? • X6 is Type of Employment (q53) (nominal): Which of the following best describes your job? Day laborer, work in a private household, employee of private company or non-profit organization, government employee, self-employed or business owner? • X7 is region one lives (IDENT) (nominal): Northeast, North Central, South, West

5. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS • All missing data was recoded into ‘missing’ values • The mode of the dependent variable (q27_dummy) is 1 (favorable). The range is from 0 (negative) to 1 (favorable). • Data source: PEW Hispanic Center, 2007

6. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS • While there is an overall positive attitude, it decreases as education level increases

7. BIVARIATE ANALYSIS • Gamma shows that there is a weak, negative association between the IV education and the DV attitude. The higher the education level, the more likely one is to have a negative attitude towards illegal immigrants. • Gamma show there is a moderate, negative association between IV Income and DV attitude. The higher the income of an individual, the more likely one is to have a negative attitude towards illegal immigrants. • Chi Square shows that there is significant relationship between income, education, and the dependent variable. While Chi Square suggests there is a significant relationship between Country of Origin and the dependent variable, lambda is extremely low (.000), suggesting Country of Origin is not statistically significant • .b = can’t be computed because the asymptotic standard error = 0.

8. Interpretation: • In each model, the variable education is statistically significant. This confirms the bivariate analysis. • Model 1: As the education level improves by one unit, the probability of exhibiting negative attitudes raises by 3.5% • Model 2: As the education level improves by one unit, the probability of exhibiting negative attitudes raises by 3.1% • Model 3: As the education level improves by one unit, the probability of exhibiting negative attitudes raises by 3.5% Probit Analysis, DV=27_dummy • Education Legend: • None • High School Incomplete • High School Grad • GED • Business, technical, vocational school • Some college, no 4 year degree • College graduate • Post-graduate training Model 1: explains 3.0% of the total variation of the dependent variable (27_dummy). Model 2: explains 2.6% of the total variation of the dependent variable (27_dummy). Model 3: explains 3.3% of the total variation of the dependent variable (27_dummy).

9. POLICY IMPLICATIONS • To a large extent, I must fail to reject the null hypothesis. My research hypothesis, that whether one is native-born or foreign-born Hispanic is the primary explanatory factor for one’s attitude towards illegal immigrants in the U.S., was not demonstrated. However, while most of my independent variables did not exhibit a significant relationship with the dependent variable, there was a relationship between Level of Education and attitude towards illegal immigrants. Therefore, I must both reject and accept the null hypothesis. • What are the policy implications of your findings? • The findings show that the higher the level of education, the more likely one is to have a negative attitude towards illegal immigrants. • This is interesting because one would expect that the higher the education level, the more likely one would be to be sympathetic. • Therefore, more studies should be conducted in the Hispanic community to better understand why the education level affects attitude.