The Wages of Latinidad: How Immigration Enforcement Mitigates Anti-Black Assimilation

Historic accounts posit immigrant ethnic groups adopt the anti-Black attitudes of their Anglo counterparts as they acculturate in the U.S. However, contemporary evidence suggests acculturated immigrant co-ethnics may not be more likely to possess anti-Black appraisals and oppositive attitudes toward Black socio-political interests vis-a-vis their less acculturated counterparts. Drawing from reactive ethnicity and segmented assimilation theory, we posit the threatening contemporary immigration enforcement context may undercut assimilation to Anglo anti-Black attitudes among Latinxs. Using two large nationally representative Latinx surveys, we demonstrate, relative to less acculturated Latinxs, acculturated Latinxs threatened by immigration enforcement adopt attitudes concerning Black people and Black political interests akin to Black people while acculturated unthreatened Latinxs adopt or maintain attitudes closer to their Anglo counterparts. These findings suggest the extent of anti-Black assimilation among contemporary acculturated immigrant co-ethnics is conditional on the receptivity of the host society.