A Wedge Issue for the 21st Century: The Conditional Effect of Party Identification for Predicting Feelings Towards Immigrants and Refugees in a Higher Ed Setting

Authors

Nicholas Bauroth, North Dakota State University - Main CampusFollow
Kjersten Nelson, North Dakota State UniversityFollow

Keywords

Higher Education, Public Opinion, Rural Immigration, Social Contact Theory, Rural Education

Abstract

The issue of immigration played an important role in recent U.S. elections. How did the salience of immigration and refugees in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections play out amongst young voters? Did increased opportunities to interact with immigrants and refugees affect respondents’ feelings towards these groups, as social contact theory might predict? The analyses here focus on a sample of college students, given that the higher education experience presents conditions for social contact theory to play out. We find that party identification is a key piece of the puzzle – measures of social contact theory operate differently for Democratic and Republican students. These are important findings for those who wish to foster better intergroup relations in a higher ed setting and beyond.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Bauroth, Nicholas and Nelson, Kjersten (2023) "A Wedge Issue for the 21st Century: The Conditional Effect of Party Identification for Predicting Feelings Towards Immigrants and Refugees in a Higher Ed Setting," Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy: Vol. 18: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/1936-0487.1117