Literature Review: The Application of the Contact Theory to Immigration Perspectives

STUDENT NAME HERE Dr. Stephen Sills Sociology 301 February 1, 2011 Word Count: 2,148

The contact theory of sociology suggests that the contact between different races, religions, and ethnicities minimize stereotyping and discrimination. Through interaction, prejudice and stereotyping is reduced. This term paper connects the contact theory to the subject of immigration and attempts to demonstrate that negative perception towards immigration is created by the lack of contact between the host (group of people) and newcomer (immigrants.) Below, I will review five scholarly journals that present data and information that may provide evidence or context to establish validity of the contact theory. In addition to providing an overview of these research articles, I included relevant information about the researchers who conducted the study to make possible motivation for their inquiry. A review of the authors background may offer first hand familiarity to the experience of an immigrants perception about interaction with the host community. The journal articles reviewed differ not only in the country of origin but also in the groups studied as the subject of research. The purpose is to look at a wider view of human perception as opposed to focusing small group responses. It must be noted that these studies take into consideration other variables, which could play a significant role in influencing host populations attitude towards immigrants. For example, Social Factors Influencing Immigration Attitudes: An Analysis of Data from the General Social Survey, studies public opinion on immigration policy in the United States. It showed how perceived cultural threats and contact have the most effect on immigration views. However, there was no ignoring other variables such as political ideology, economic outlook, age, and sex. Race, income, and fear of crime seemed to play a small role in public attitudes. The study used data from the 1994 General Social Survey to gather information concerning the issue of rights and entitlements in various areas for legal immigrants and other questions focusing upon "undocumented aliens". The 1994 General Social Survey used full-probability sampling to select respondents from adult, English-speaking, non-institutionalized, population of the United States. 2,992 interviewees were used in the study. This study was done by two professors at Texas Tech in the department of Sociology and 2

Anthropology, Charles R. Chandler and Tsai Yung-mei. Yung-mei's research tends to deal with Globalization and Urban development and his angle could be somewhat biased due to being an immigrant himself. Chandler has done work outside of the topic of Immigration and studied the Durkheimian model of the relationship between societal development and homicide. This study demonstrates the variables one needs to take into consideration when seeking a determination on the public opinion regarding immigration. Relationships or having met an immigrant may not be enough to determine sentiment. In addition, the researchers did an excellent job in not concentrating on one point. They were very aware of various variables playing a role in the public's opinion toward immigrants. The study chose a group representative of the US majority, the subjects were adult, English speaking, and non-institutionalized citizens. The research was done in 1994 and the study was done in 2001; this is not a terrible time difference but when taking into consideration using this piece for work being done in 2011, current data could vary significantly from 17 years ago. This study may be of use in its set-up but probably not so much of its data, due to the time having passed and significant events that have occurred since. In a more recent, 2006 study, A Racial Prejudice, Threat Perception and Opposition to Immigration: A Comparative Analysis, focused the opposition to immigration as a behavioral orientation associated with the belief that immigrants constitute a threat in terms of security, economic well-being and cultural identity. The analysis looked at Portugal, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The study suggested that the hypothesis where opposition to immigration is anchored in the perception of threat not only at an economic and security level, but also in the identity sphere, was confirmed. On researching the authors it is found that Jorge Valas work is in the field of social representations and ideologies, social norms and social identities at the University of Louvain, Belgium. Similar to Charles Chandler in the previous study, 3

Vala is a native to the studys origin, in this case Portugal. Bias was difficult to determine in this situation because of the limited information on the authors. It could only be assumed that this research for the University of Lisbon was strictly research. The variables were clear and through the research the researchers made a conclusion that was evident in the numbers. Though extremely large in numbers the method for selecting subjects to question is non-existent. The fact that this research is done using European countries is something to be noted but does not discredit the application to the hosts sentiment. Each country used in the study is dealing with its own form of inward immigration, and as in the case of the United States, perceptions exist. Portugal and Spain are experiencing a large migration from North West Africa in addition the United Kingdom from various parts of Asia. EUROSTAT recorded a 1.8 million increase in the European population back in 2005. As was found in further research, the countries previously listed are not the alone in immigration . Similar to the study done by the University of Lisbon, this next study focused on the feelings towards immigration in a different country of the European Union. The basis for the study Effects of Contact and Personality on Intergroup Attitudes of Different Professionals emerged from the fact that Finland has seen a large increase in immigrants from the break up of the Soviet Union and the Middle East. This is due to the fact that in the last 50 years, Finland has transformed itself from an agriculturally oriented culture into a competitive, technologically advanced information society. This studys focal point was on the attitudes of different professionals towards immigrants. Selected professionals included police officers, medical doctors and nurses and studied the effects on intergroup attitudes, quality of contact, and also the level of authoritarianism were examined. Those surveyed did voluntarily and the results matched expectations. Based on the data, the study summarized that Those who knew at least one out-group member well had more positive attitudes towards the whole group than did those who knew an out-group member only 4

superficially. This result remained stable among both males and females even when, in addition, controlling for professional field and education. As in the case of the previous two studies, this journal was also carried out by a group of faculty. Karmela Liebkind, Juha Haaramo and Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti were social psychology professors at the University of Helsinki. This study was very strong and clear on the subjects chosen. The sexes of the participants were modeled almost identically to that of Finland as a whole. Regardless of the fact that it also looked at the authoritative aspect of prejudice, its determination on prejudice towards immigrants based on relationship or knowing an immigrant is identical to the hypothesis posed. Intergroup negative attitudes are prejudiced attitudes that have an irrational basis and permeated by feelings of hostility, while positive attitudes are based on rationality and correct information. For this reason, they believe that exposure to frequent contact will reveal the falsity of negative beliefs about the minority group. The previous statement was quoted the study Derogation, Disrespect, and Discomfort: The Contact Hypothesis and Attitudes toward Hispanics and Immigration. Just as in the study conducted in Finland, the findings clearly demonstrated the validity of the contact theory in the positive view of immigrants based on contact. Similar to the Texas Tech study, the methods of this research came from the General Social Survey, only this time the data was more recent. In 2000, 2,817 individuals were surveyed but only 1,100 individuals were used based off of their answering to being white or black Americans. Questions regarding relationship with a Hispanic, then followed by additional questions on the perception of Hispanics. If there is any question as to why the study targeted Hispanic it should be mentioned that the largest number of immigrants to the United States in the last 30 years have been Hispanics. According to the U.S Census Bureau, the number of Hispanics has increased by 25.7 million between 1970 and 2000 (from 9.6 to 35.3 million), and it counts for 12.5 percent of total population of the United States in 2000. Heeju Shin, Christopher Ellison, and David Leal were all under contract at the 5

University at the time of this study. The southern border of Texas is the frontline for immigrants coming into the United States from Central and South America. These three sociologists have made a career out of studying the movement of Hispanics into the United States and the affect of the American Society. The fact the study is so recent makes its application to our hypothesis relevant and the data applicable. The fact this research focuses on Americas national immigration issues makes the material more relatable to my intended target audience. The final research journal studied is done even closer to home and looks at two counties in North Carolina. The primary goal of A Tale of Two Counties: Natives Opinions Toward Immigration in North Carolina was to evaluate variants of the contact hypothesis. This was done investigating whether actual contact or indirect exposures to foreign-born populations are associated with anti-immigration sentiments. The two North Carolina counties chosen were Person and Chatham. The reason these two counties were selected was have one with a large population of Hispanic Immigrants (Chatham) and another with very few (Person). To assess whether intergroup contact is associated with positive perceptions of immigration, the study used several measures of actual contact and exposure to immigrants. These measures included whether respondents socialized with an immigrant outside of the workplace, had contact with an immigrant on the job, and reported hearing non-English languages spoken frequently in their community or at work. Questionnaires with the same set of questions were sent to groups of people in both counties. One the determined Immigration Problem Index Person County scored higher than Chatham County (the higher the score the bigger the perceived problem). The journal went on to point out that, Natives in Chatham County have much greater opportunity to interact with immigrants and a greater proportion report doing so, compared with Person County. Our analysis indicates that some of these contacts are associated with a more benign view of immigration; hence it is plausible that the larger number of contacts with immigrants in Chatham County partly account for the opinion gap between the two counties.

This research was well done and looks at small areas very near to one and other. The fact that Kevin ONeil and Marta Tienda were based out of Princeton, avoided having any personal feelings to the areas studied and allowed them to just observe as outsiders. The data used to determine why North Carolina was to be chosen for the study is made clear in early stages of experimentation and is followed by solid evidence to support the conclusion. This journal added a more local perspectives not offered by the previous four journals that focused more on the National perception. This differentiation is important for a broader look at the issues concerning immigration and the contact theory. The concept of the contact theory is nothing new. In 1934, sociologist Richard LaPiere conducted an experiment he called Attitudes vs. Actions. In this study he took a Chinese couple around the United States and attempted to book hotel rooms when Americans perception of the Chinese was incredibly low. LaPiere found that when face to face with the couple, the majority of hotels accepted them. When LaPiere then called ahead to book at the same hotels, being clear of their being Chinese, the couple was turned away every time. As in the example of LaPiere, sociologists have used the bases of the contact theory over the years to determine a way to reduce prejudice and stereotyping through interaction. The journals that were reviewed were all done by sociologist at various universities around the world and took a look at why different majority groups react to immigrants based on interaction. When the contact theory is applied to the theory of immigration it becomes evident that negative perception towards immigration increases with lack of contact with the minority group. Using the data and results of the previous five studied journals it is understood that the lack of contact creates false prejudices and further increases negatives perceptions and feeling toward immigrants or any other minority group.

References Chandler, Charles R. and Yung-mei, Tsai. 2001. "Social factors Influencing Immigration Attitudes: An Analysis of Data from the General Social Survey." Social Science Journal 38(2): p177-188. Heeju, S., Ellison, C., and Leal, D. 2008. Derogation, Disrespect, and Discomfort: The Contact Hypothesis and Attitudes toward Hispanics and Immigration. Conference Papers American Sociological Association 1. LaPiere, R. T. 2010. Attitudes vs. Actions. International Journal of Epidemiology 39(1): 7-11. Liebkind, K., Haaramo, J., and Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. 2000. Effects of contact and personality on intergroup attitudes of different professionals. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 10(3): 171-181. ONeil, K., Tienda, M. 2010. A Tale of Two Counties: Natives Opinions Toward Immigration in North Carolina. International Migration Review 44(3): 728761. Vala, J., Pereira, C. and Ramos, A. 2006. Racial prejudice, Threat Perception and Opposition to Immigration: A Comparative Analysis. Portuguese Journal of Social Science 5(2): 119-140. U.S Census Bureau. The Hispanic Population: Census 2000 Brief. Web. 2001.