Relocating Prejudice: A Transnational Approach to Understanding Immigrants' Racial Attitudes

• Published in: The International migration review Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 330 - 373
• Main Authors: Roth, Wendy D., Kim, Nadia Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2013; Wiley Subscription Services; SAGE Publications; Wiley; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: African Americans; Attitudes; Borders; Cultures and civilizations; Ethnic relations. Racism; Globalization; Immigrants; Immigration; International migration; Multiracial people; Nation states; Noncitizens; Prejudice; Race relations; Racial attitudes; Racial prejudice; Racism; Social Change; Social interactions; Sociology; Transnationalism; U.S.A; United States Of America; Social Change; Attitude towards; Afro-American; Immigrant; Racialization; Race; Transnationalism; Immigration; Social Image; Prejudice; Mass media; Racism
• ISSN: 0197-9183; 1747-7379
• DOI: 10.1111/imre.12028

Immigration is changing the racial composition of many societies. Yet leading theories of racial prejudice, even in a multiracial context, focus on dynamics in a single nation-state and fail to account for the experiences of the foreign-born. We adopt a transnational approach that incorporates processes creating prejudice from both inside and outside the receiving society and that shows how attitudes move across borders through immigration, transnationalism, and globalization. We draw upon two in-depth studies of immigrants and those who stay in the home countries, focusing on Koreans' and Dominicans' attitudes toward Black Americans. By situating existing theories of racial prejudice within a transnational framework, we illustrate how models of transnationalism are relevant not just within immigration scholarship, but to more general processes of social change.