Who is Worthy: Immigrants in a Time of Uncertainty

Public opinion on immigrants and immigration varies wildly and support for these vulnerable populations is subject to ideas of deservingness and threat. These ideas, I argue, are filtered through racial identities that are heightened when individuals believe terrorist threats may be possible in their immediate areas. These racial identities are complex and change the ideas of who is dangerous or worthy of support for entry to the United States. Using various survey data, I examine support for immigrants with different immigration status and find that as respondents believe that a terrorist attack in their area is possible, support for refugees decreases to a greater degree than support for legal immigration. I further analyze if some refugees have greater support for entry than others.

Maricruz Ariana Osorio is a PhD student at the University of California, Riverside. Broadly, her work examines political engagement and behavior of marginalized groups, with a focus on the political behavior of women and immigrants. Her dissertation work argues that immigrants participate in politics after a series of risk assessments shaped by gender, citizenship status, and understandings of risk at either the individual or communal level. She has published in Aztlan and has contributed to other forms of publicly available scholarship including policy reports, blogs, encyclopedia entries, and public radio. 

Sponsored by the Political Science Department, Black Studies Program, Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Creating Connections Consortium (C3)

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