God, Nation, and the Other: How Religious Attitudes Affect Citizen's Attitudes Towards Immigration Policy.

Immigration has emerged as one of the most important policy debates in contemporary America. What shapes citizens attitudes towards immigration policy? Of particular interest is the role played by religion and nationalism - two other important emerging forces in American politics - in determining these attitudes. In previous research (Nooruddin and McDaniel 2006), we show that higher levels of nationalism are associated with more exclusionary definitions of American citizenship. In this paper, we deepen the causal chain by including religion in the analysis. On the one hand, scholars have argued that American nationalism is rooted in religious beliefs, which would suggest that more religious citizens should have higher levels of nationalistic fervor and therefore favor less inclusionary immigration policy. On the other, some religious elites have emphasized the principles of tolerance and compassion in their faith in arguing that members of their congregation should be open-minded and accepting of increased immigration. This paper uses survey data to discriminate between these arguments, and seeks to contribute thereby to the larger debates about the evolving nature of contemporary US politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]