Publications
Publications
- August, 2022
- American Political Science Review
Changing Ingroup Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the U.S.
By: Vasiliki Fouka and Marco Tabellini
Abstract
How do social group boundaries evolve? Does the appearance of a new outgroup change the ingroup's perceptions of other outgroups? We introduce a conceptual framework of context-dependent categorization, in which exposure to one minority leads to recategorization of other minorities as in- or outgroups depending on perceived distances across groups. We test this framework by studying how Mexican immigration to the U.S. affected White Americans' attitudes and behaviors towards Black Americans. We combine survey and crime data with a difference-in-differences design and an instrumental variables strategy. Consistent with the theory, Mexican immigration improves Whites' racial attitudes, increases support for pro-Black government policies and lowers anti-Black hate crimes, while simultaneously increasing prejudice against Hispanics. Results generalize beyond Hispanics and Blacks and a survey experiment provides direct evidence for recategorization. Our findings imply that changes in the size of one group can affect the entire web of inter-group relations in diverse societies.
Keywords
In-group-out-group Relations; Ingroup-outgroup Relations; Immigration; Race; Relationships; United States
Citation
Fouka, Vasiliki, and Marco Tabellini. "Changing Ingroup Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the U.S." American Political Science Review 116, no. 3 (August, 2022): 968–984. (Featured in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, and HBS Working Knowledge.)
Supplemental Information
Online Appendix for Changing Ingroup Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the US