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

无证移民问题多年来一直是美国政治的核心问题。无证移民在某种意义上将墨西哥和美国“联系起来”。沿着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贡献等问题的担忧。无证移民到美国产生了重大的政治争议，因为移民通常被描绘为对美国安全，文化和经济地位的威胁。在理解公民如何看待移民的作用方面，仅仅关注美国在许多方面限制了洞察力。 首先，美国是一个接收国。 移民到美国，但相对而言，很少有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既是派遣国又是接受国的独特地位。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，有大量的移民来自中美洲国家。在这项研究中，调查人员有兴趣了解墨西哥人如何看待未经授权的移民的差异。 特别是，他们试图评估受访者如何看待“内群体”移民（墨西哥人移居美国）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，是一个将美国与墨西哥联系在一起的问题。媒体和政治精英对这个问题的关注大多集中在从墨西哥到美国的人口流动上，这忽略了墨西哥也经历了大量移民流入的事实。在这方面，墨西哥国民在美洲移民方面占有独特的地位。一方面，墨西哥是向美国输送无证移民的主要国家。 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非常矛盾。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，他们往往表现出与许多美国人对无证墨西哥移民的立场相似的立场。此外，墨西哥关于美国人对墨西哥移民的态度的元信念与他们对中美洲移民的态度和待遇形成鲜明对比和冲突。从这个意义上说，墨西哥公民所处的独特地位，使研究人员能够在单一人口中发挥作用和洞察力，调查与外群体非人化、内群体超非人化以及非人化和减损的负面影响可以抵消的程度有关的问题。调查人员获得分析杠杆来评估这些关键概念如何体现，因为他们的研究设计利用了移民包括内组（墨西哥移民）和外组（中美洲移民）的人口中的概念信息。这项研究将采用一种抽样计划，对墨西哥公民进行有代表性的抽样，从而避免需要依靠学生或便利抽样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，它将处理墨西哥人对中美洲移民非人化的程度。 其次，它将衡量墨西哥人对墨西哥移民的美国非人化的信念在多大程度上影响了他们对内群体移民的判断。 第三，它将评估是否可以通过提供人性化的信息，即将外群体移民（中美洲）的困境与内群体移民（墨西哥）的困境联系起来的信息，来减轻墨西哥人对受减损的外群体（中美洲移民）的负面评价。

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).