Proximal contact with Latino immigrants and immigration attitudes

The growth of the Latino community has increased levels of contact between this minority group and the predominately white majority. How does exposure to immigrants impact attitudes towards immigrants and immigration held by white Americans? We argue that previous work has not adequately tested the relationship posited by inter-group contact theory, whereby contact should shape policy attitudes. We test our theory drawing on the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). We find that among non-Hispanic whites, having a loved one who is a Latino immigrant improves attitudes towards immigrants as a group, which in turn is associated with declining support for punitive immigration policy. We likewise find that attitudes towards immigrants as a group mediates the relationship between proximal contact and policy attitudes. We draw on a variety of strategies to assess the robustness of the findings and to tease out evidence for the causal pathway we theorize is at work. As the demographics of the nation continue to change, growing closer to minority-majority status, understanding the factors that shape how white Americans regard their minority neighbors is of heightened importance.