Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/98534176126
Henry Sexter
My name is Henry Sexter, and I am from Manchester, Vermont. I am currently a sophomore at Wesleyan University pursuing a double major in Government and Spanish, alongside a minor in Data Analysis. I also conduct economic research with the Wesleyan Institute for Policy.
Abstract: President Donald Trump’s immigration policy is defined by its unparalleled scope, marked by explicit dehumanizing rhetoric and a dramatic escalation of interior enforcement. Recent ICE raids across workplaces, campuses, homes, and traffic stops reflect this intensification. Many studies on inter-ethnic attitudes in Western Europe and North America find that more highly educated individuals report greater tolerance toward immigrants and ethnic minorities. However, the majority of this evidence comes from cross-sectional correlations and much of it is based on European data. Higher education often leads to higher-status jobs, which insulate individuals from direct competition with immigrants. One of the driving factors that fuels support for Trump’s anti-immigration policies is the pretense that immigrants will take the jobs of American citizens, even though research shows that immigrants often work low-wage positions that fill labor gaps rather than displacing native workers. The goals of this analysis include establishing the relationship between education and attitudes toward immigrants and determining whether this relationship differs among different income groups. Using data from the 2021 General Social Survey, we show that both education level and income affected attitudes toward immigration, with individuals who had more formal education and higher incomes reporting more tolerant views. These findings suggest that the association between education and immigrant sentiment is complex and shaped not only by knowledge and tolerance but also by socioeconomic isolation, clarifying ambiguous results in the existing literature.
Sexter-QAC-201-Final-Poster