PIs: Zoila Ponce de Leon, Assistant Professor, Washington and Lee University; Gabriele Magni, Assistant Professor, Loyola Marymount University
Grant Amount and Grant Fund: $2,500, Marguerite Ross Barnett Fund
Project Abstract: Immigration has become an increasingly relevant political issue. This project examines a topic that has received limited attention in existing scholarly work on immigration attitudes, but that is central to the political discourse of various countries: the deportation of immigrants who are illegally in the country. What determines attitudes toward deportation? We focus on two countries where immigration is a key political issue and where populist right-wing politicians have been successful in recent years: the United States and Brazil. We explore what role economic, cultural, security, and health concerns play in driving attitudes toward deportation. Furthermore, we analyze how immigrants’ characteristics influence natives’ attitudes on deportation, focusing on three attributes: country of origin, religious denomination, and sexual orientation. We study these questions with original surveys conducted in the U.S. and Brazil with samples mirroring census quotas on key socio-demographics and use both observational and experimental items to measure attitudes toward deportation.