New research explores how policy affects immigrants

With major immigration reform legislation making its way through Congress, the July issue of the APA journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology explores topics such as how Americans view illegal versus legal immigrants, the impact cultural values have on anti-immigration policies and how the uncertainty of immigration status can negatively affect young students. Special Section: "New Developments in Research on Immigration," edited by Nadine Nakamura, PhD, Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD, and Michael A. Zárate, PhD, includes articles on:

• "Reasonable Suspicion About Tough Immigration Legislation: Enforcing Laws or Ethnocentric Exclusion?" (PDF, 121KB) by Sahana Mukherjee, Glenn Adams, PhD, and Ludwin Molina, PhD, of the University of Kansas. Support for tough immigration legislation is more likely to reflect people's opinion that their own culture is superior, rather than feeling the need for justice, the authors found.
• "The Complexity and Ambivalence of Immigration Attitudes: Ambivalent Stereotypes Predict Conflicting Attitudes Toward Immigration Policies," (PDF, 109KB) by Christine Reyna, PhD, DePaul University; Ovidiu Dobria, Malcolm X College; and Geoffrey Wetherell, DePaul University. A mix of positive and negative stereotypes is found to impact attitudes toward immigrants, according to a study of 414 college students. This research could explain why both attitudes and immigration policies aimed at certain cultural groups are so complex, say the authors.
• "Attitudes Toward Unauthorized Immigrants, Authorized Immigrants, and Refugees," (PDF, 245KB) by Kate E. Murray, PhD, and David Marx, PhD, San Diego State University. People express more prejudice against and perceive more threats from undocumented rather than legal immigrants, according to this study of 191 college students.
• "¿Y Ahora Qué? Anticipated Immigration Status Barriers and Latina/o High School Students' Future Expectations," (PDF, 85KB) by Ellen Hawley McWhirter, PhD, Karina Ramos and Cynthia Medina, University of Oregon. Latino high school students who anticipate immigration status problems are more likely to feel discouraged from pursuing higher education than Latino students who don't face immigration problems, according to this study of 475 Latino high school students.
• "Expanding Our Borders: Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology's Special Issue on Immigration," (PDF, 45KB) by Nadine Nakamura, PhD, University of La Verne; Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, PhD, Boston College; and Michael A. Zárate, PhD, University of Texas El Paso. A summary of the special issue expands on the need for more research into immigrant populations, particularly how being undocumented affects psychological well-being, including differences and similarities between legal and undocumented immigrants.

— Audrey Hamilton