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Past research suggests that citizens' attitudes toward immigration are driven, in part, by attitudes toward racial diversity. In this study, we draw on a unique online survey experiment conducted with representative samples of both Americans and Canadians to directly test this assertion. The analysis is based on a 2X2 experimental design embedded in a series of immigrant vignettes that vary the racial background and social status of an individual applying for immigration to the US/Canada. We examine the extent to which both racial and economic-status cues affect support for immigration. Results offer new and unique information on the structure of attitudes on diversity and immigration in the US and Canada [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past work suggests that support for welfare in the US is heavily influenced by citizens' racial attitudes. Indeed, the idea that many Americans think of welfare recipients as poor Blacks (and especially as poor Black women) has been a common explanation for Americans' comparatively low support for redistribution. In this study, we extend existing work on how racialized portrayals of recipients affect attitudes toward redistribution. The data for the analysis are drawn from a new and unique online survey experiment, implemented by YouGov Polimetrix and conducted with national samples in the US, UK and Canada. Through a series of survey vignettes, we experimentally manipulate the ethno-racial background of policy beneficiaries for various types of redistributive programs. By exploring whether citizens respond to other minority groups (Asians, Hispanics, South Asians and Native Americans) in a manner similar to Blacks, our results provide a cross-national extension of the American literature. We also provide an extension across policy domains by examining whether racial cues affect other welfare state policy domains. Finally, we also consider the relative impact of three different measures of overt, modern, and implicit racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a socialization perspective, this article builds on the insights of the contact hypothesis literature to challenge recent findings that racial and ethnic diversity have overwhelmingly negative effects on social capital. Using the Canadian General Social Survey (2003), our findings show that despite a negative relationship among adults, younger Canadians with racial and ethnic diversity in their social networks show higher levels of generalized trust. The results seem to confirm that youth experiences with rising diversity and the normalization of diversity in a multicultural environment contribute to beneficial (instead of detrimental) effects of diverse social networks. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of political tolerance usually focus on what makes citizens willing to extend basic civil liberties to groups they find objectionable. Protecting this diversity of opinions is often considered key to a healthy democracy. Though the literature on political tolerance considers this value absolute, many advanced industrialized democracies ostensibly recognize that the expression of exclusionary speech (i.e. hate speech or holocaust denial) is counter to the multicultural demands of contemporary democracies. In this paper, I will examine how exposure to social diversity impacts attitudes towards exclusionary speech. Whereas the literature on political tolerance currently ignores the role that different types of target groups can play, I will present evidence that individuals are in fact less likely to tolerate the expression of exclusionary speech, even after controlling for the degree of objection, compared to other controversial speech. I will then test the hypothesis that as young people are increasingly exposed to social diversity, they will become more tolerant generally, except in the case of exclusionary speech. This differential impact is key to my argument that target groups matter and that they matter in ways that make sense in contemporary, multicultural democracies. Drawing on the insights of the contact hypothesis in social psychology, I argue that the reason exposure to social diversity decreases support for the public expression of exclusionary speech is because it increases empathy with the victims of such speech. The analysis for this project will come from a unique comparative youth dataset collected in Belgium and Canada that provides close to 10,000 respondents between the ages of 15 and 18. The dataset includes a political tolerance battery that I specifically designed for this analysis and detailed questions about the types of social diversity that each respondent has within their social networks. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]