文档介绍：“And Who Is My Neighbor?” Religion
and Immigration Policy Attitudes
BENJAMIN R. KNOLL
Department of Political Science
University of Iowa
This study explores immigration reform as a possible new “moral” issue upon which American religious elites
anizations take public positions. It is argued that religion is a key independent variable necessary for
understanding the determinants of public attitudes regarding immigration policy. Theoretical expectations are
formed from the ethnoreligious, religious restructuralism, and minority marginalization frameworks. Quantitative
evidence is presented, that demonstrates that those who attend religious services more frequently are more likely to
support liberal immigration reform policies. Members of minority religions, notably Jews and Latter-day Saints,
are also more likely to empathize with the plight of undocumented immigrants and support liberal immigration
reform measures.
Immigration reform has emerged as one of the more salient political issues in recent years.
At the urging of President Bush, Congress attempted to pass sweeping immigration reform
legislation in both 2006 and 2007. Proposals ranged from a “hard-line” mass deportation of all
undocumented immigrants to more “comprehensive” reform measures that would provide a path
to citizenship for those currently in the United States. These congressional debates provoked
heated and passionate discussion among the public, which ultimately prevented representatives
from being able to reach a consensus on the issue, dooming the various reform proposals.
While several valuable studies investigating the determinants of attitudes toward immigration
policy have been published (see Citrin et al. 1997; Hood and Morris 1998; Hood, Morris, and
Shirkey 1997, .), religion as a key explanatory variable in these studies has been either
marginalized or ignored. There are important reasons, however, to predict that religion is important
to understanding