Abstract
The United States has a long history of destabilizing intervention abroad which often leads to the displacement of people. This paper explores whether information about U.S. intervention can increase support for refugees, and whether/how processes of racialization impact the effect of information treatments. Using an original survey experiment, I find that information about historical U.S. involvement abroad can improve attitudes under certain conditions. Still, sending country, refugee racial appearance, and respondent ethnoracial identity remain crucial factors in the way Americans perceive refugees. For white respondents, information about U.S. intervention significantly increases a sense of refugee deservingness in the context of one sending country but not another. For Black respondents, refugee racial appearance and country of origin, but not exposure to information, shapes attitudes. This study contributes to scholarship on how information can change attitudes toward immigration and refugees and on the importance of considering multiple dimensions of race in immigration attitudes research.
Committee Chair
Ariela Schachter
Committee Members
Cynthia Feliciano, David Cunningham
Degree
Master of Arts (AM/MA)
Author's Department
Sociology
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Fall 12-10-2022
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/p7r4-aj29
Recommended Citation
Pekarek, Garrett, "Does Knowledge about Historical U.S. Intervention Shape Attitudes about Refugee Deservingness? Evidence from a Survey Experiment" (2022). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 2823.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/p7r4-aj29
Comments
This publication was supported in part as a Washington University in St. Louis Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity Small Grant