​Abstract

Do immigrant presence and racial segregation affect different individuals’ attitudes toward immigration? There is a controversy in previous literature about whether more immigrants lead to more or less anti-immigration attitudes. I argue that the disagreement is because they ignore the degree to which the immigrants (and other minorities) are segregated. In the U.S. context, I hypothesize that for conservatives, higher immigrant/racial segregation is related to more pro-immigration attitudes because a lack of intergroup communication functions as a “shield” against more salient group membership and substantial prejudice against the outgroups. With data covering five presidential elections in 2008-2024 from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey, and Cooperative Election Study, I use Bayesian multilevel linear regressions with immigration attitudes as DV. Most results support the hypothesis. This paper contributes to immigration politics by comparing the different effects of immigrant presence and racial segregation interacting with ideology and providing a modified version of the threat theory in explaining the divergent effects of racial segregation on liberals’ and conservatives’ immigration attitudes.