Economic Uncertainty, Job Threat, and the Resiliency of the Millennial Generation's Attitudes Toward Immigration
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2015 Southwestern Social Science Association. Objective: Drawing a distinction between conditional and prevalence factors that affect immigration attitudes, we examine if the recent economic recession has influenced the Millennial Generation's attitudes about immigration, compared to non-Millennials. Methods: Employing data from the 2008 American National Election Study (ANES), we conduct a logit analysis to estimate the effects of theoretically relevant factors on immigration attitudes. Results: Our findings indicate that even in the face of poor economic conditions that disproportionately impacted Millennials, this cohort's attitudes toward immigration are quite resilient. While Millennials' immigration attitudes vary across a number of determinants, overall, they are more tolerant of immigration than non-Millennials. Conclusion: Millennials' tolerance of immigration is consistent with their general liberal beliefs. This is true even under the conditional impact of economic self-interest and the conditional and prevalence impact of culture during the recession-a time when Millennials could have been susceptible to factors mitigating their feelings toward immigrants.