The Paradox of Migration: Assessing Mexican Beliefs about the Inmigrante

Omar García-Ponce

Abstract

This study evaluates three important questions. First, to what extent do Mexicans engage in dehumanization of Central American immigrants? Second, it measures the degree to which Mexican beliefs about American dehumanization of Mexican immigrants influences their judgement about ingroup immigrants. Third, it assess whether negative appraisals by Mexicans of derogated outgroups (Central American migrants) can be mitigated by the presentation of humanizing information, namely, information connecting the plight of outgroup migrants (Central American) with ingroup migrants (Mexican). To do this, we will administer a series of survey experiments, targeting around 4,000 subjects across Mexico.

García-Ponce is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. Previously, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Global Development. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from New York University.

García-Ponce's research focuses broadly on the political economy of conflict and development, with an emphasis on both criminal and political violence. Two key questions motivate his research: How does violence influence individual behavior and institutional development? And how do institutions in turn affect patterns of violent conflict? My regional expertise is in Latin America, but he has a wide interest in the study of violence in the developing world.

From a methodological perspective, his interests are in quantitative approaches to causal inference—including both experimental and quasi-experimental designs—and survey methodology.

His work has been published or is forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, Electoral Studies, and the Journal of the European Economic Association. You can find my Google Scholar profile here.