The Data on White Anxiety Over Hispanic Immigration

THE DATA ON WHITE ANXIETY OVER HISPANIC IMMIGRATION

What drives American views on immigration is often not pretty.

Media coverage in this country has a huge effect on how people form their political views. I just finished reading this article in the Washington Post about a study done comparing reactions to news about immigrants of Latino origin versus Immigrants of Russian origin and the results are shocking. People react in a much more negative manner to stories about Latinos and it sparks an “English-Only” reaction among White readers.

Unsurprisingly, those who read a negatively-toned immigration story expressed less support for immigration. But the impact of seeing a negative story featuring a Mexican immigrant was double the size of a negative story about the Russian Immigrant.