What explains natives' attitudes towards immigrants in host countries? This paper argues that not only economic and cultural but also political threat perceptions influence attitude formation. Natives consider the political balance of power and calculate the potential political benefits of admitting immigrants. This is because expected in‐party members will affect the balance of power in their favour. Leveraging a conjoint experiment in the United States, this study explores whether an immigrant's expected party affiliation shapes native attitudes. The findings indicate that immigrants with defined party affiliations are favoured compared to non‐affiliated ones. Moreover, respondents favoured immigrants perceived as political allies and penalized those seen as rivals. Expected party affiliation is even a strong predictor of attitudes for natives with existing anti‐immigrant attitudes as they curbed their negativities and favoured certain party identities. Overall, results suggest the pivotal role of political considerations as well as the importance of studying unexplored factors in attitude formation on immigration.

中文翻译：

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预期的党派关系如何影响对移民的态度？来自美国的实验证据


如何解释东道国当地人对移民的态度？本文认为，不仅经济和文化，而且政治威胁感知也会影响态度的形成。当地人会考虑政治权力平衡，并计算接纳移民的潜在政治利益。这是因为预期的党内成员会影响对他们有利的权力平衡。本研究利用美国的一项联合实验，探讨移民预期的党派关系是否会影响当地人的态度。研究结果表明，与无党派的移民相比，有明确党派背景的移民更受青睐。此外，受访者青睐被视为政治盟友的移民，并惩罚被视为竞争对手的移民。预期的政党归属甚至可以强烈预测具有反移民态度的当地人的态度，因为他们抑制自己的消极情绪并支持某些政党身份。总体而言，结果表明政治因素的关键作用以及研究未探索的因素在移民态度形成中的重要性。