LitReview Contact Immigration

8/6/2019 LitReview Contact Immigration

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Literature Review: The Application of the Contact Theory to Immigration

Perspectives

STUDENT NAME HERE

Dr. Stephen Sills

Sociology 301

February 1, 2011

Word Count: 2,148


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The contact theory of sociology suggests that the contact between different

races, religions, and ethnicities minimize stereotyping and discrimination. Through

interaction, prejudice and stereotyping is reduced. This term paper connects the

contact theory to the subject of immigration and attempts to demonstrate that

negative perception towards immigration is created by the lack of contact between

the host (group of people) and newcomer (immigrants.) Below, I will review five

scholarly journals that present data and information that may provide evidence or

context to establish validity of the contact theory. In addition to providing an

overview of these research articles, I included relevant information about the

researchers who conducted the study to make possible motivation for their inquiry.

A review of the authors background may offer first hand familiarity to the

experience of an immigrants perception about interaction with the host

community. The journal articles reviewed differ not only in the country of origin

but also in the groups studied as the subject of research. The purpose is to look at a

wider view of human perception as opposed to focusing small group responses. It

must be noted that these studies take into consideration other variables, which

could play a significant role in influencing host populations attitude towards

immigrants.

For example, Social Factors Influencing Immigration Attitudes: An Analysis of

Data from the General Social Survey, studies public opinion on immigration policy in

the United States. It showed how perceived cultural threats and contact have the

most effect on immigration views. However, there was no ignoring other variables

such as political ideology, economic outlook, age, and sex. Race, income, and fear of

crime seemed to play a small role in public attitudes. The study used data from the

1994 General Social Survey to gather information concerning the issue of rights andentitlements in various areas for legal immigrants and other questions focusing

upon "undocumented aliens". The 1994 General Social Survey used full-probability

sampling to select respondents from adult, English-speaking, non-institutionalized,

population of the United States. 2,992 interviewees were used in the study. This

study was done by two professors at Texas Tech in the department of Sociology and


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Anthropology, Charles R. Chandler and Tsai Yung-mei. Yung-mei's research tends to

deal with Globalization and Urban development and his angle could be somewhat

biased due to being an immigrant himself. Chandler has done work outside of the

topic of Immigration and studied the Durkheimian model of the relationship

between societal development and homicide. This study demonstrates the variables

one needs to take into consideration when seeking a determination on the public

opinion regarding immigration. Relationships or having met an immigrant may not

be enough to determine sentiment.

In addition, the researchers did an excellent job in not concentrating on one

point. They were very aware of various variables playing a role in the public's

opinion toward immigrants. The study chose a group representative of the US

majority, the subjects were adult, English speaking, and non-institutionalized

citizens. The research was done in 1994 and the study was done in 2001; this is not

a terrible time difference but when taking into consideration using this piece for

work being done in 2011, current data could vary significantly from 17 years ago.

This study may be of use in its set-up but probably not so much of its data, due to

the time having passed and significant events that have occurred since.

In a more recent, 2006 study,A Racial Prejudice, Threat Perception and

Opposition to Immigration: A Comparative Analysis, focused the opposition to

immigration as a behavioral orientation associated with the belief that immigrants

constitute a threat in terms of security, economic well-being and cultural identity.

The analysis looked at Portugal, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The

study suggested that the hypothesis where opposition to immigration is anchored in

the perception of threat not only at an economic and security level, but also in theidentity sphere, was confirmed.

On researching the authors it is found that Jorge Valas work is in the field of

social representations and ideologies, social norms and social identities at the

University of Louvain, Belgium. Similar to Charles Chandler in the previous study,


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Vala is a native to the studys origin, in this case Portugal. Bias was difficult to

determine in this situation because of the limited information on the authors. It

could only be assumed that this research for the University of Lisbon was strictly

research. The variables were clear and through the research the researchers made a

conclusion that was evident in the numbers. Though extremely large in numbers the

method for selecting subjects to question is non-existent. The fact that this research

is done using European countries is something to be noted but does not discredit

the application to the hosts sentiment. Each country used in the study is dealing

with its own form of inward immigration, and as in the case of the United States,

perceptions exist. Portugal and Spain are experiencing a large migration from North

West Africa in addition the United Kingdom from various parts of Asia. EUROSTAT

recorded a 1.8 million increase in the European population back in 2005. As was

found in further research, the countries previously listed are not the alone in

immigration .

Similar to the study done by the University of Lisbon, this next study focused

on the feelings towards immigration in a different country of the European Union.

The basis for the study Effects of Contact and Personality on Intergroup Attitudes of

Different Professionals emerged from the fact that Finland has seen a large increase

in immigrants from the break up of the Soviet Union and the Middle East. This is due

to the fact that in the last 50 years, Finland has transformed itself from an

agriculturally oriented culture into a competitive, technologically advanced

information society. This studys focal point was on the attitudes of different

professionals towards immigrants. Selected professionals included police officers,

medical doctors and nurses and studied the effects on intergroup attitudes, quality

of contact, and also the level of authoritarianism were examined. Those surveyeddid voluntarily and the results matched expectations. Based on the data, the study

summarized that

Those who knew at least one out-group member well had more positive attitudes

towards the whole group than did those who knew an out-group member only


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superficially. This result remained stable among both males and females even when, in

addition, controlling for professional field and education.

As in the case of the previous two studies, this journal was also carried out by a

group of faculty. Karmela Liebkind, Juha Haaramo and Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti weresocial psychology professors at the University of Helsinki. This study was very

strong and clear on the subjects chosen. The sexes of the participants were modeled

almost identically to that of Finland as a whole. Regardless of the fact that it also

looked at the authoritative aspect of prejudice, its determination on prejudice

towards immigrants based on relationship or knowing an immigrant is identical to

the hypothesis posed.

Intergroup negative attitudes are prejudiced attitudes that have an irrational basis

and permeated by feelings of hostility, while positive attitudes are based on rationality

and correct information. For this reason, they believe that exposure to frequent

contact will reveal the falsity of negative beliefs about the minority group.

The previous statement was quoted the study Derogation, Disrespect, and

Discomfort: The Contact Hypothesis and Attitudes toward Hispanics and Immigration.

Just as in the study conducted in Finland, the findings clearly demonstrated the

validity of the contact theory in the positive view ofimmigrants based on contact.Similar to the Texas Tech study, the methods of this research came from the General

Social Survey, only this time the data was more recent. In 2000, 2,817 individuals

were surveyed but only 1,100 individuals were used based off of their answering to

being white or black Americans. Questions regarding relationship with a Hispanic,

then followed by additional questions on the perception of Hispanics. If there is any

question as to why the study targeted Hispanic it should be mentioned that the

largest number of immigrants to the United States in the last 30 years have been

Hispanics. According to the U.S Census Bureau, the number of Hispanics has

increased by 25.7 million between 1970 and 2000 (from 9.6 to 35.3 million), and it

counts for 12.5 percent of total population of the United States in 2000.

Heeju Shin, Christopher Ellison, and David Leal were all under contract at the


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University at the time of this study. The southern border of Texas is the frontline for

immigrants coming into the United States from Central and South America. These

three sociologists have made a career out of studying the movement of Hispanics

into the United States and the affect of the American Society. The fact the study is so

recent makes its application to our hypothesis relevant and the data applicable. The

fact this research focuses on Americas national immigration issues makes the

material more relatable to my intended target audience.

The final research journal studied is done even closer to home and looks at

two counties in North Carolina. The primary goal ofA Tale of Two Counties: Natives

Opinions Toward Immigration in North Carolina was to evaluate variants of the

contact hypothesis. This was done investigating whether actual contact or indirect

exposures to foreign-born populations are associated with anti-immigration

sentiments. The two North Carolina counties chosen were Person and Chatham. The

reason these two counties were selected was have one with a large population of

Hispanic Immigrants (Chatham) and another with very few (Person). To assess

whether intergroup contact is associated with positive perceptions of immigration,

the study used several measures of actual contact and exposure to immigrants.

These measures included whether respondents socialized with an immigrant

outside of the workplace, had contact with an immigrant on the job, and reported

hearing non-English languages spoken frequently in their community or at work.

Questionnaires with the same set of questions were sent to groups of people in both

counties. One the determined Immigration Problem Index Person County scored

higher than Chatham County (the higher the score the bigger the perceived

problem). The journal went on to point out that,

Natives in Chatham County have much greater opportunityto interact with

immigrants and a greater proportion report doing so, compared with Person County.

Our analysis indicates that some of these contacts are associated with a more benign

view of immigration; hence it is plausible that the larger number of contacts with

immigrants in Chatham County partly account for the opinion gap between the two

counties.


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This research was well done and looks at small areas very near to one and

other. The fact thatKevin ONeil and Marta Tienda were based out of Princeton,

avoided having any personal feelings to the areas studied and allowed them to just

observe as outsiders. The data used to determine why North Carolina was to be

chosen for the study is made clear in early stages of experimentation and is followed

by solid evidence to support the conclusion. This journal added a more local

perspectives not offered by the previous four journals that focused more on the

National perception. This differentiation is important for a broader look at the

issues concerning immigration and the contact theory.

The concept of the contact theory is nothing new. In 1934, sociologist Richard

LaPiere conducted an experiment he calledAttitudes vs. Actions. In this study he

took a Chinese couple around the United States and attempted to book hotel rooms

when Americans perception of the Chinese was incredibly low. LaPiere found that

when face to face with the couple, the majority of hotels accepted them. When

LaPiere then called ahead to book at the same hotels, being clear of their being

Chinese, the couple was turned away every time. As in the example of LaPiere,

sociologists have used the bases of the contact theory over the years to determine away to reduce prejudice and stereotyping through interaction. The journals that

were reviewed were all done by sociologist at various universities around the world

and took a look at why different majority groups react to immigrants based on

interaction. When the contact theory is applied to the theory of immigration it

becomes evident that negative perception towards immigration increases with lack

of contact with the minority group. Using the data and results of the previous five

studied journals it is understood that the lack of contact creates false prejudices and

further increases negatives perceptions and feeling toward immigrants or any other

minority group.


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References

Chandler, Charles R. and Yung-mei, Tsai. 2001. "Social factors Influencing

Immigration Attitudes: An Analysis of Data from the General Social Survey."

Social Science Journal38(2): p177-188.

Heeju, S., Ellison, C., and Leal, D. 2008. Derogation, Disrespect, and Discomfort: The

Contact Hypothesis and Attitudes toward Hispanics and Immigration.

Conference Papers American Sociological Association 1.

LaPiere, R. T. 2010. Attitudes vs. Actions. International Journal of Epidemiology

39(1): 7-11.

Liebkind, K., Haaramo, J., and Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. 2000. Effects of contact and

personality on intergroup attitudes of different professionals.Journal of

Community & Applied Social Psychology10(3): 171-181.

ONeil, K., Tienda, M. 2010. A Tale of Two Counties: Natives Opinions Toward

Immigration in North Carolina.International Migration Review44(3): 728-

761.

Vala, J., Pereira, C. and Ramos, A. 2006. Racial prejudice, Threat Perception and

Opposition to Immigration: A Comparative Analysis.Portuguese Journal of

Social Science 5(2): 119-140.

U.S Census Bureau. The Hispanic Population: Census 2000 Brief. Web. 2001.

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LitReview Contact Immigration