Intersectional Immigration Thesis

“Intersectionality and the Foreign-Born: Explaining the Variation in the Immigration Attitudes of Immigrants” by Justin Berg and Shannon Morley utilizes an intersectional approach in attempt to understand and explain how social factors influence individual’s attitudes of immigrants to the United States. The intersectional approach takes care to analyze factors beyond one’s race by including information on gender and education. The study uses data from the 2006 Pew Research Center’s Immigration Survey, including only the national portion of the survey and questions that all respondents are asked. Berg and Morley look specifically at attitudes of those living in metropolitan areas “because the majority of immigrants live in metropolitan areas.” (Berg, Morley 6) They created a scale of eleven questions which

Gender was coded 1 for male and 0 for female. Education was coded as 0 for less than high school, 1 for high school degree, 2 for some college, 3 for college degree, and 4 for graduate degree. Ultimately the study indicated that immigrants hold a range of attitudes regarding immigration, which is influenced by social factors such as race, gender, and education. "Warmth of the Welcome: Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Immigration Policy in the United States” by Elizabeth Fussell focuses on how the attitudes of native-born Americans on immigrants shapes formation of in groups, out groups, and intergroup relationships. Fussell describes pro-immigrant views as leading to a “warm welcome,” or acceptance of new immigrants and a “cold welcome” as unaccepting of new immigrants. In recent years, attitudes on immigration have been becoming more “warm,” so Fussell assesses different theories of prejudice to explain the contemporary shift in attitudes. Herbert Blumer’s theory of prejudice explains attitudes on immigrants as relative to an individual’s group position. The U.S. has a