Stereotypes of immigrants and immigration in the United States.

Immigration is one of the most important and divisive issues in America in the twenty-first century. Stereotypes that portray immigrants as threatening American jobs, wages, safety, and way of life have been used as political tools to galvanize disaffected voters and further divide partisans from both sides of the political aisle. This chapter explores the current literature on immigrant stereotypes in the United States and how immigration and immigrants are depicted in the culture, the media, and nation's laws and policies. It argues that immigrants serve as a perpetual scapegoat for economic, security, and symbolic threats. The chapter reviews stereotypes of immigrants in general and highlight the ways these stereotypes manifest across specific groups, paying special attention to three groups that have dramatically shaped immigration attitudes and policies in the last few decades—Asian, Arab/Muslim, and Hispanic immigrants. It contextualizes these stereotypes within changing cultural and economic circumstances in America, discusses the ambivalence that ensues when stereotypes contradict each other, and also discusses real world immigration outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)