Moral and Immoral Whiteness in Immigration Politics

Immigration has been at the heart of US politics for centuries. In Moral and Immoral Whiteness in Immigration Politics, Yalidy Matos examines the inherent moral, value-based, nature of white Americans' immigration attitudes, including preferences on local immigration enforcement programs, federal immigration policy, and levels of legal immigration allowed. Does identifying as white always signify a commitment to maintain the racial status quo or can it result in commitments to racial justice? How do we understand the passage of state-level sanctuary and anti-sanctuary immigration legislation through a white identity political lens? Thinking about whiteness as a moral choice complicates the idea that immigration policy preferences are mostly about demographic shifts.

To examine the centrality of morality in white Americans' immigration attitudes, Matos looks at public opinion survey data as well as the roll call votes of elected officials. She examines the conditions under which white Americans choose to reproduce a system structured on white supremacy or repudiate it, as well as the role of socialization in their choices and immigration attitudes. As immigration continues to be weaponized to divide, Matos highlights the importance of understanding the roots of immigration attitudes in the United States and the ways in which whiteness structures these attitudes.