Americanism in the Twenty-First Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration

281 Pages·2010·1.259 MB·English

by  Deborah J. Schildkraut

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AmericanismintheTwenty-FirstCentury
PublicOpinionintheAgeofImmigration
ThisbookexplorespublicopinionaboutbeingandbecomingAmerican,
anditsimplicationsforcontemporaryimmigrationdebates.Itfocuseson
the causes and consequences of two aspects of American identity: how
peopledefinebeingAmericanandwhetherpeoplethinkofthemselvespri-
marily as American rather than as members of a panethnic or national
origingroup.Importantly,thebookevaluatestheclaim–madebyschol-
ars and pundits alike – that all Americans should prioritize their Ameri-
can identity instead of an ethnic or national origin identity. It finds that
nationalidentitywithinAmericandemocracycanbeablessingoracurse.
It can enhance participation, trust, and obligation. But it can be a curse
when perceptions of deviation lead to threat and resentment. It can also
beacurseforminoritieswhoareattachedtotheirAmericanidentitybut
alsoperceivediscrimination.ThenotionofAmericanidentityisapredis-
position that the government has good reason to cultivate but also good
reasontoapproachwithcaution.
Deborah J. Schildkraut is an Associate Professor of Political Science at
TuftsUniversity.SheisalsotheauthorofPress“One”forEnglish:Lan-
guagePolicy,PublicOpinion,andAmericanIdentity.

Americanism in the Twenty-First Century
Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration
DEBORAH J. SCHILDKRAUT
TuftsUniversity
cambridgeuniversitypress
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,Singapore,
Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,Dubai,Tokyo,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521145244
©DeborahJ.Schildkraut2011
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2011
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata
Schildkraut,DeborahJill,1973–
Americanisminthetwenty-firstcentury:publicopinionintheageofimmigration/
DeborahSchildkraut.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-521-19175-3(hardback)–isbn978-0-521-14524-4(pbk.)
1.Nationalcharacteristics,American. 2.Americanization. 3.UnitedStates–Emigrationand
immigration–Socialaspects. 4.Immigrants–UnitedStates–Socialconditions. 5.Social
integration–UnitedStates. 6.Assimilation(Sociology)–UnitedStates. I.Title.
e169.12.s
973–dc22 2010025203
isbn978-0-521-19175-3Hardback
isbn978-0-521-14524-4Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurlsfor
externalorthird-partyInternetWebsitesreferredtointhispublicationanddoesnotguarantee
thatanycontentonsuchWebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
ListofFiguresandTables pagevi
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction:AmericanIdentityintheTwenty-FirstCentury 1
2 TheTwenty-First-CenturyAmericanismSurvey 22
3 DefiningAmericanIdentityintheTwenty-FirstCentury 34
4 PolicyImplicationsofMultidimensionalAmericanism 63
5 TheMythsandRealitiesofIdentityPrioritization 94
6 Does“BecomingAmerican”Createa“Better”American? 128
7 ImmigrantResentment:WhentheWorkEthicBackfires 160
8 ThePoliticsofAmericanIdentity 195
AppendixA:21-CASSurveyQuestions 211
AppendixB:SupplementaryTablesfromChapter3 225
AppendixC:SupplementaryTablesfromChapter5 228
AppendixD:SupplementaryTablesfromChapter6 231
AppendixE:SupplementaryTablesfromChapter7 237
References 239
Index 257
v
Figures and Tables
figures
5.1 PredictedProbabilitiesofIdentityPrioritizationforLatinos
acrossGenerations page112
5.2 PredictedProbabilitiesofIdentityPrioritizationforLatinos
acrossPerceptionsofIndividual-LevelDiscrimination 112
5.3 PredictedProbabilitiesofIdentityPrioritizationforAsiansacross
Generations 114
5.4 PredictedProbabilitiesofIdentityPrioritizationforAsiansacross
PerceptionsofIndividual-LevelDiscrimination 114
6.1a PredictedProbabilitiesofBlacksTrustingGovernment“Mostof
theTime”asIndividual-LevelDiscriminationandIdentity
PrioritizationVary 141
6.1b PredictedProbabilitiesofBlacksTrustingGovernment“Never”
asIndividual-LevelDiscriminationandIdentityPrioritization
Vary 141
6.2a PredictedProbabilitiesofLatinosTrustingGovernment“Mostof
theTime”asPanethnicDiscriminationandIdentity
PrioritizationVary 142
6.2b PredictedProbabilitiesofLatinosTrustingGovernment“Never”
asPanethnicDiscriminationandIdentityPrioritizationVary 142
6.3a PredictedProbabilitiesofAsiansTrustingGovernment“Mostof
theTime”asPanethnicDiscriminationandIdentity
PrioritizationVary 143
6.3b PredictedProbabilitiesofAsiansTrustingGovernment“Never”
asPanethnicDiscriminationandIdentityPrioritizationVary 143
6.4 PredictedProbabilityofSayingOneHasanObligationto
DonateasIdentityandPanethnicDiscriminationVary 149
6.5 PredictedProbabilityofSayingOneHasanObligationto
VolunteerasIdentityandNationalOriginDiscriminationVary 150
vi
FiguresandTables vii
7.1 TheProbabilityofSayingImmigrationShouldBeDecreased,as
ResentmentVaries 191
7.2 TheProbabilityofSayingLegalImmigrantsShouldNotReceive
Benefits,asResentmentVaries 191
7.3 TheProbabilityofSayingIllegalImmigrantsShouldNotReceive
Benefits,asResentmentVaries 192
tables
2.1 ComparingtheTwenty-First-CenturyAmericanismSurveyand
theAmericanPopulation 32
2.2 ComparingRespondentsintheTwenty-First-Century
AmericanismSurveyandtheCensus,byRace 33
3.1 AmericanIdentityItems 45
3.2 BackgroundCharacteristicsandAmericanIdentity(summated
ratingscales) 53
3.3 BackgroundCharacteristicsandAmericanIdentity(singlesurvey
items) 54
3.4 AntecedentsofAmerica’sEthnoculturalandCivicRepublican
Traditions,OLS 57
3.5 AntecedentsofAmerica’sLiberalandIncorporationist
Traditions,OrderedProbit 59
4.1 DeterminantsofSupportforRestrictiveLanguagePolicies 76
4.2 PredictedProbabilityofSupportingRestrictiveLanguagePolicy
Option 78
4.3 DeterminantsofSupportforInternmentandProfiling 88
4.4 PredictedProbabilityofApprovingofInternmentandProfiling 89
5.1 IdentityPrioritization:“Whichonebestdescribeshowyouthink
ofyourselfmostofthetime?” 105
5.2 DeterminantsofIdentityPrioritization,LatinosandAsians,
MultinomialLogit 110
5.3 DeterminantsofIdentityPrioritization,BlacksandWhites,
MultinomialLogit 111
5.4 StrengthofIdentification,byRace,OLS 117
5.5 PerceptionsofDiscrimination,Mean 121
5.6 DeterminantsofPerceptionsofDiscrimination,Nonwhites,OLS 122
5.7 DeterminantsofPerceptionsofDiscrimination,WhitesOnly,
OLS 124
6.1 TrustinGovernment,byRace,OrderedProbit 139
6.2 TrustinLawEnforcement,byRace,OrderedProbit 145
6.3 ObligationtoGiveMoneytoCharities,Volunteer,Servein
Military,byRace,OrderedProbit 148
6.4 ProudtoBeAmerican,byRace,OrderedProbit 154
6.5 SummaryofKeyFindings(blacks,Latinos,andAsiansonly) 157
viii FiguresandTables
7.1 ImmigrantResentment,RacialResentment,andEthnocultural
Resentment 175
7.2 DeterminantsofImmigrantResentment,RacialResentment,and
EthnoculturalResentment 180
7.3 DeterminantsofImmigrationPolicyPreferences 190
B.1 BivariateCorrelationsamongAmericanIdentityItems 226
B.2 RotatedFactorMatrix(varimaxrotation) 227
C.1 RotatedFactorLoadingsforPerceptionsofDiscrimination
(varimaxrotation) 228
C.2 DeterminantsofIdentityPrioritization,FullSample,Multinomial
Logit 229
C.3 DeterminantsofPerceptionsofDiscrimination,FullSample,OLS 230
D.1 OverallLevelsofTrustandObligation 231
D.2 PrideinBeingAmerican 233
D.3 ObligationtoGiveMoneytoCharities,byRace,OrderedProbit 234
D.4 ObligationtoVolunteer,byRace,OrderedProbit 235
D.5 ObligationtoServeintheMilitary,byRace,OrderedProbit 236
E.1 RotatedFactorMatrix(varimaxrotation) 237
E.2 BivariateCorrelationsamongResentmentItems 238