The Trajectory of Public Attitudes Toward Immigrants in the United States: Latent Growth Analysis Approach

Objective: Public attitudes toward immigrants influence their adaptation to new circumstances. This study examines public attitudes toward immigrants in the United States to identify the patterns of attitude change from 1996 to 2014; the relationship between individuals' income and the trajectory of attitudes toward immigrants is investigated as well. Method: I conducted a latent growth model using the General Social Survey data sets (1996, 2004, and 2014), which included a module on immigration. The total sample size was 3,639. All participants were U.S. citizens. Results: General attitudes toward immigrants have significantly worsened from 1996 to 2014 (intercept = 2.510, slope = -.025, p < .001). Respondents' annual household income influenced the trajectory of attitudes toward immigrants (beta = .002, SE = .001, p = .006), with poorer households having more negative attitudes toward immigrants. Conclusions: Study findings warn of growing anti-immigrant sentiments. Further investigation is needed to correct negative stereotypes and misconceptions about the harm caused by immigration to the U.S. economy and welfare of the population.