The Paradox of Migration and Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Assessing Mexican Beliefs about Migration the Immigrants

多年来，无证移民问题一直是美国政治的核心问题。在某种意义上，非法移民“连接”了墨西哥和美国。随之而来的是对国内安全、经济考虑以及墨西哥移民对美国社会的贡献等问题的担忧。由于移民通常被描述为对美国安全、文化和经济地位的威胁，无证移民进入美国产生了重大的政治争议。在理解公民如何看待移民的角色方面，只关注美国在很多方面限制了洞察力。首先，美国是一个接收国。也就是说移民到美国，但相对较少的美国公民移民到其他国家。与美国公民不同，墨西哥人在移民方面处于独特的地位，既是移民输出国，也是移民接受国。拟议的研究旨在了解墨西哥公民如何评估和理解移民问题。显然，许多墨西哥人已经移民到美国。然而，在整个墨西哥，有大量来自中美洲国家的移民。在这项研究中，调查人员感兴趣的是了解墨西哥人如何看待非法移民的差异。特别是，他们试图评估受访者如何看待“内群体”移民（移居美国的墨西哥人）和“外群体”移民（居住在墨西哥的中美洲人）。为此，他们将对墨西哥人进行一系列民意调查，询问他们对移民的看法，以及他们对墨西哥和中美洲移民的态度。移民，特别是无证移民，是将美国与墨西哥联系在一起的一个问题。媒体和政治精英对这个问题的大部分关注都集中在墨西哥人向美国的流动上，而忽略了墨西哥也经历了大量移民流入的事实。在这方面，墨西哥国民在美洲的移民中占有独特的地位。一方面，墨西哥是向美国输送非法移民的主要国家。然而，墨西哥也是中美洲移民的主要接收国。有趣的是，有证据表明，墨西哥人在这方面的观点是高度矛盾的。墨西哥人倾向于以积极和同情的方式看待墨西哥移民到美国。然而，当被问及来自中美洲的移民时，他们倾向于表现出与许多美国人对无证墨西哥移民的看法相似的立场。此外，墨西哥人对美国人对墨西哥移民态度的元观念与他们对中美洲移民的态度和待遇形成了鲜明的对比和冲突。从这个意义上说，墨西哥公民处于独特的地位，可以让研究人员在单一人口中利用和洞察与群体外非人化、群体内元非人化以及非人化和贬损的负面影响可以被抵消的程度有关的问题。研究人员获得了分析杠杆来评估这些关键概念是如何表现出来的，因为他们的研究设计利用了人口中移民既包括内群体（墨西哥移民）又包括外群体（中美洲移民）的概念信息。该研究将采用抽样计划，产生墨西哥公民的代表性样本，从而避免需要依赖学生或便利样本来评估与移民非人化有关的态度。本研究将评估三个重要问题。首先，它将解决墨西哥人对中美洲移民进行非人化的程度。其次，它将衡量墨西哥人对美国对墨西哥移民的非人化的看法在多大程度上影响了他们对群体内移民的判断。第三，它将评估墨西哥人对被贬低的外群体（中美洲移民）的负面评价是否可以通过人性化信息的呈现来减轻，即将外群体移民（中美洲）与内群体移民（墨西哥）的困境联系起来的信息。

The issue of undocumented immigration has been a central issue in American politics for many years. Undocumented immigration has in some sense "connected" Mexico and the United States. Along with this comes concerns about issues such as domestic security, economic considerations, and questions about contributions Mexican migrants make to U.S. society. Immigration of undocumented persons to the U.S. generates significant political controversy because immigrants are commonly portrayed as threats to US security, culture, and economic standing. In terms of understanding how citizens perceive the role of immigrants, focusing solely on the United States limits insight in a number of ways. First, the U.S. is a receiving country. That is migrants move to the U.S., but relatively few American citizens migrate to other countries. Unlike U.S. citizens, Mexicans are in the unique position of being both a sending and receiving nation with respect to immigration. The proposed study seeks to understand how Mexican citizens assess and understand the immigration issue. Obviously, many Mexicans have migrated to the U.S. Throughout Mexico, however, there are large numbers of migrants from Central American countries. In this study, the investigators are interested in understanding the differences in how Mexicans view unauthorized migrants. In particular, they seek to assess how respondents view "ingroup" migrants (Mexicans moving to the US) and "outgroup" migrants (Central Americans living in Mexico). To do this, they will administer a series of public opinion surveys of Mexicans asking them about immigration and their attitudes toward Mexican and Central American migrants.Immigration, particularly with respect to undocumented immigrants, is an issue that ties the United States to Mexico. Most of the attention paid to the issue by the media and political elites centers on the movement of people from Mexican to the U.S. This ignores the fact that Mexico has experienced massive inflows of immigrants as well. In this context, Mexican nationals occupy a unique niche with respect to immigration in the Americas. On the one hand, Mexico is the leading sending nation of undocumented migrants to the United States. Yet Mexico is also a leading receiver of immigrants from Central America. Interestingly, evidence suggests the views of Mexicans in this context are highly conflicted. Mexicans tend to view Mexican immigrants to the United States in a positive and empathetic way. When asked about immigrants from Central America, however, they tend to exhibit positions similar to those many Americans take with respect to undocumented Mexican immigrants. Further, Mexican metabeliefs about Americans' attitudes toward Mexican immigrants stand in stark contrast and in conflict to their attitudes and treatment of Central American immigrants. In this sense, Mexican citizens are situated in the unique position of giving researchers leverage and insight within the a single population to investigate questions related to outgroup dehumanization, ingroup metadehumanization, and the extent to which the negative effects of dehumanization and derogation can be counteracted. The investigators gain analytical leverage to assess how these critical concepts manifest, because their research design leverages information on the concepts within a population where immigrants comprise both an ingroup (Mexican migrants) and an outgroup (Central American migrants). The study will utilize a sampling plan that produces a representative sample of Mexican citizens, thus avoiding the need to rely on student or convenience samples to assess attitudes related to migrant dehumanization. This study will evaluate three important questions. First, it will address the extent to which Mexicans engage in dehumanization of Central American immigrants. Second, it will measure the degree to which Mexican beliefs about American dehumanization of Mexican immigrants influences their judgement about ingroup immigrants. Third, it will assess whether negative appraisals by Mexicans of derogated outgroups (Central American migrants) can be mitigated by the presentation of humanizing information, namely, information connecting the plight of outgroup migrants (Central American) with ingroup migrants (Mexican).