What Immigration Issues Do Americans Hold Sacred?

A new report by Corporation grantee the American Immigration Council suggests that common ground may be found by understanding how deeply Americans hold their stances on immigration more so than what those stances actually are

By Carnegie Corporation of New York March 29, 2021

Immigration

How and why do U.S. citizens hold the immigration attitudes that they do? The Center for Inclusion and Belonging, a special project created by Corporation grantee the American Immigration Council, recently examined the psychology behind immigration positions in a survey of Americans. Their finding? How deeply Americans hold their stances on immigration may matter more than what those stances actually are.

The report What Immigration Issues Do Americans Hold Sacred?aims to help build strategies for change in the often divisive debate around immigration policy in this country by uncovering not only Americans’ current beliefs around immigration, but also the ways in which our beliefs and values interact with our perceptions of it.

One key takeaway from the report is the role sacred values play in the immigration discussion:

Research shows that when perceived threat and social identity become involved, our policy stances can become sacralized, transforming into absolutist, moralized, non-negotiable values. These sacred values do not operate like regular values, which can be reevaluated if one is willing to make trade-offs. Instead, sacred values are processed implicitly in the brain, outside of our conscious awareness or control.

According to the authors of the report, each of the 14 immigration issues posed in their initial survey was “sacred” to a significant proportion of the survey participants. This creates the theory that learning more about an individual or group (their beliefs, attitudes, general sense of societal belonging, etc.) is an essential first step toward having a productive conversation about immigration in America, as well as enacting policy changes on a national level.

Visit the American Immigration Council’s website to read the entire report, What Immigration Issues Do Americans Hold Sacred? A Psychological Journey into American Attitudes Toward Immigrants.

TOP: Migrant families wait for their bus at a bus station in Brownsville, Texas, before traveling to meet relatives or sponsors, March 2, 2021. (Credit: Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)