Abstract
Immigration is an important and contemporary topic in management education given its impact on labor, wages, innovation, and diversity. However, extant research offers few insights into the antecedents to student immigration attitudes. Survey data from undergraduate students taking business courses at two large public universities in the southeast U.S. reveal that while student attitudes toward immigration are more moderate than the general U.S. population, these attitudes differ by gender, political affiliation, and immigration background. Following realistic conflict theory and social identity theory, these student immigration attitudes are a function of both fear and competition. First, their attitudes are confounded by conflicting antecedents in perceived personal competition for resources with immigrants (e.g., jobs, wages) versus immigration benefits (e.g., costs, labor base, innovation). Second, xenophobia (fear of immigrants) is a remarkably powerful influencer of one’s immigration attitude and its antecedents. With these points, management educators must engage students in critical thinking about immigration to prepare them to effectively work with diverse colleagues and business partners while leading global organizations. We, therefore, present four cross-disciplinary areas of intersection between immigration and management education, including diversity and cultural intelligence, human resource management and ethics, entrepreneurship and innovation, and finally, economic and socioeconomic impacts.
Introduction
Immigration is a social issue that presents both opportunities and challenges to business (Hajro et al., 2021), meaning that a good understanding of immigration and its impact on business is inherently complex. For instance, individuals must balance perceived detriments of immigrants taking jobs from natives and lowering natives’ wages versus the significant organizational, social, and economic benefits created by these same jobs and wages (Davies, 2009). Furthermore, individual perceptions of immigration may be influenced by a fundamental personal fear of those different from us (Butcher & Piehl, 1998; Sniderman et al., 2004). These nuances require business students to constructively study and debate the complexities of immigration and modern business. We contend that management educators are not only uniquely positioned to guide students through this process but also have a responsibility to do so in their effort to enhance student professional effectiveness and employability (Brader et al., 2008; Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2014).
By and large, however, immigration remains mostly untouched in management curricula and texts as well as pedagogical research (Hajro et al., forthcoming). Ignoring this “elephant in the room” adds to criticism about the relevancy of business curricula relative to the needs of employers (Hajro et al., 2021; Van Buren & Hood, 2011). We, thus, explore U.S. business student attitudes about immigration, including how these attitudes are formed. To do so, we analyze survey data from two undergraduate business schools in the southeast U.S., finding moderate yet somewhat disparate immigration views. Moreover, we establish antecedents to immigration attitudes in competition for resources via realistic conflict theory as well as a fear of immigrants via social identity theory. We conclude with four cross-disciplinary areas of intersection between immigration and management education whereby students can explore the various impacts of immigration and openly evaluate their personal immigration positions. These intersections ultimately prepare students to work with diverse colleagues and business partners to effectively lead global organizations.
Literature Review
The terms immigration, emigration, and migration share commonalities of human movement across borders and geographies. For this paper, we follow the definition of immigrants as nonresident aliens residing in a host country (Dicken & Blomberg, 1991), which parsimoniously includes immigration dimensions, including length of stay (e.g., permanent vs. temporary) and status (e.g., legal and illegal), as outlined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2021). The driving forces behind one’s willingness to leave one’s homeland for a life in a new country are as varied as the backgrounds of the immigrants. Previous authors have noted how immigration can emerge from pushing one to leave their home country and/or pulling them to move to the new country. Push factors, for instance, may include a lack of jobs, famine, political instability, religious intolerance, and racial discrimination in the origin country (Savino, 2014). Conversely, pull factors may include economic opportunities like jobs and better pay as well as freedom from religious, political, and racial persecution in the host country (Savino, 2014). Roughly two-thirds of global immigration is based on jobs (Hajro et al., 2021) with Huddle (1993) contending that the draw of immigrants, both legal and illegal, to the U.S. stems largely from employment and economic opportunities. Outside of academia, immigration is a regular topic in the press with articles often arriving at differing conclusions about the impact of immigration on the workforce (e.g., compare Smialek (2021) to Hannon (2021)). These points solidify immigration as a contemporary topic in management education. However, despite the salience of immigration to the workforce and society, the topic receives very little attention in the management education literature. Searches on the terms “immigration” and “immigrant” in the article titles and abstracts in the Journal of Management Education and the International Journal of Management Education result in only one article since 2010 (Amoroso et al., 2010).
U.S. Immigration
The availability and accuracy of data make true measurement of immigration difficult (Ajana, 2015). It is evident, however, that the U.S. is the largest host country in the world. The U.S. population includes more than 40 million immigrants, of which approximately 77% are legal (i.e., documented), comprising about 12% of the U.S. population, a proportion just below the high of 14% in 1980 (Radford, 2019). Notably, in 1970 only 4.8% of the U.S. population was comprised of immigrants, depicting how U.S. immigration has increased rapidly in recent decades (Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2014). While the overall U.S. workforce is still dominated by whites/Anglos, other groups, particularly Hispanics, are expanding their shares (DelCampo et al., 2011).
The U.S. has a long and complicated history with immigration. Interestingly, one can say that nearly the entire current U.S. population originated as immigrants with most arriving within the last 150 years (Radford, 2019). Somewhat ironically, each settled wave of immigrants has historically attempted to restrict the next wave, typically based on economic and/or racial concerns (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). For instance, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was implemented over concerns of immigrants taking away jobs from recently-established citizens (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). As another example, the U.S. moved to a quota system in the 1920s that favored western and northern Europeans until the 1960s when the focus shifted to family reunification (Davies, 2009; Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). Throughout these changing approaches, the U.S. has often enacted initiatives to fill labor gaps like the bracero program for agricultural workers after World War II and the current H-1B (skilled) and H-2B (unskilled) worker visa programs (Davies, 2009). More recently, the U.S., like other primary immigration host countries, has witnessed an increase in backlash, and even violence, from some residents about immigration and globalization (Hajro et al., 2021).
Contention about immigration in the U.S. is reflected in contradicting legislation that can create a “fundamental tension” within the economy and job market (Cordero-Guzmán & Henken, 2004; Savino, 2014). In some respects, the U.S. has encouraged certain workers to enter the country to fill labor gaps (e.g., the aforementioned H-1B and H-2B visas) (Davies, 2009). However, the U.S. immigration system can also create significant barriers to entry, even for highly-desired skilled workers (Leader-Chivée, 2014). Other pieces of legislation, such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) in 1996, sought to reduce illegal immigration (Davies, 2009). In the end, the U.S. immigration system is largely characterized as “a political football” and “broken” with legislation sometimes yielding unintended results (Davies, 2009; The New York Times, 2014).
Conundrums of Immigration
Such U.S. contention with immigration originates from a series of conundrums over social and economic impacts that subsequently shape individual immigration attitudes (Hajro et al., 2021). For instance, Americans may be fearful of resource competition from immigrants (e.g., for jobs, for public resources) while concurrently valuing the motivated, often lower-paid workers that immigration brings to the economy (Davies, 2009). Next, Americans tend to hold high-skilled immigrants in strong regard yet show disdain for low-skilled immigrants, despite the U.S. having formal programs to encourage both (Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2015). Continuing, U.S. policies invite non-citizens to seek education and training in the U.S. but discourage them from then staying in the country, thereby losing subsequent entrepreneurship and economic growth (Leader-Chivée, 2014; Wadhwa, 2012). Finally, an ethical challenge exists with a nation comprised largely of recent generations of immigrants who yet support policies that restrict newer immigrants (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996; Risse, 2008).
Such enigmas, combined with a general lack of accurate immigration knowledge among the U.S. population, generate a significant breadth of personal immigration views (Pevnick, 2008; Scheve et al., 2001). The typical American may be confounded by the simultaneous benefits and detriments of immigration and subsequently uncertain if immigration is more positive or negative for the country, especially given recent anti-globalization discourse from media and politicians (Hajro et al., 2019). With limited pedagogical research, management educators, therefore, may be challenged to help business students process their immigration views as both individuals and future business leaders.
Fear of Immigrants
Existing literature highlights how immigration attitudes can be prejudiced by an underlying fear of immigrants. For instance, one literature stream links U.S. immigration to concerns about crime and personal safety as well as loss of cultural identity (Butcher & Piehl, 1998; Sniderman et al., 2004). Americans also associate immigrants with poverty and welfare dependence (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). Moreover, scholars note how some Americans look down on immigrants, associating them with low status, “dirty” jobs (Huddle, 1993). To a more extreme extent, some researchers claim undertones of racism in immigration views and legislation as immigrants challenge the status of native whites/Anglos (Bacon, 2008; Davies, 2009). Brader et al. (2008) found, for example, that Americans’ reactions to news stories about immigration are significantly influenced by the ethnicity of the immigrants. Again, the lack of pedagogical immigration research leaves us unclear on the potential role that fear or bigotry plays in student immigration attitudes.
Research Hypotheses
Following the above complexities, we develop research hypotheses that explore the antecedents of immigration attitudes among business students to help faculty prepare effective pedagogical methods to incorporate immigration into management curricula. The hypotheses and ensuing research model draw from two theoretical lenses. First, we apply realistic conflict theory to evaluate the perceived competition for resources versus the economic benefits of immigration. Second, we rely on social identity theory to incorporate the potential impacts of fear of immigrants.
Resource Competition Versus Immigration Benefits
Existing literature depicts several concerns that Americans have with immigrants arising from economic threats (Sniderman et al., 2004). Specifically, immigration may be perceived as a drain on public resources like education, health care, and social services (Davies, 2009; Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). Additionally, a large portion of the economic research related to immigration focuses on its impacts on wages and jobs. Although some research finds evidence that immigration can depress wages for lower-skilled native workers and push these workers out of jobs, the effects tend to be complex and unclear (Altonji & Card, 1991; Borjas et al., 1997).
At least some people in the U.S. are swayed by limited evidence that they face significant competition for jobs from immigrants and that these immigrants do suppress wages (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). This stems from a general lack of accurate and timely immigration information among U.S. citizens (Scheve et al., 2001). Furthermore, important referents like news media and politicians tend to focus immigration messaging on the supposed negative job and wage impacts, creating an underlying assumption that immigration is bad for natives (Brader et al., 2008; Davies, 2009). The perceived competition for economic resources is, thus, very real to many U.S. residents.
Realistic conflict theory (RCT) provides an effective theoretical lens to evaluate this perception of a competition for economic resources. RCT centers on how competition between groups affects one group’s attitudes about the other (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). According to RCT, a perceived zero-sum competition with immigrants for jobs and wages should negatively impact natives’ immigration attitudes. Scholars do support the idea that immigration attitudes stem primarily from economic competition (Esses et al., 1998; Kunovich, 2013). Given RCT and this evidence, we expect that business students who perceive a greater level of resource competition with immigrants will have more negative attitudes about immigrants.
H1: A higher level of perceived competition for resources with immigrants leads to a more negative attitude about immigration.
RCT maintains, however, that the effect of resource competition on attitudes about the other group can be reduced or even eliminated with a superordinate goal common to both groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). That is, a mutually beneficial goal shared between the groups moderates the path from resource competition to intergroup attitudes. In our case, the positive impacts of immigration can reduce or eliminate the influence of resource competition proposed in H1. As one benefit, many developed countries like the U.S. suffer from shortages in both skilled and unskilled workforces (Ali, 2017). While different approaches like automation and non-traditional workers help fill these gaps, immigration offers the most agile and accessible solution (Dicken & Blomberg, 1991). As a related benefit, immigration can fill undesirable jobs (e.g., those jobs in extreme working conditions) as well as provide a higher level of workforce skill flexibility (Cordero-Guzmán & Henken, 2004; Huddle, 1993). This is particularly beneficial in the U.S. as many natives shift away from lower-skilled jobs (Widmer, 2016).
As another benefit, extant literature links immigration to innovation and entrepreneurship. In itself, immigration represents an entrepreneurial act to take risks to move one’s skills and capital to another country (DelCampo et al., 2011). This motivated, entrepreneurial attitude can translate positively into new business startups (Achidi Ndofor & Priem, 2011; Ali, 2017). Moreover, immigrants can bring unique skills from their home countries that facilitate organizational innovation and new venture success (DelCampo et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2012). Again, RCT maintains that a superordinate goal between groups should moderate the relationship between competition for resources and attitudes about the other group. Following the arguments above, we expect that the economic and innovation benefits from immigration should moderate (i.e., reduce or eliminate) the negative path from resource competition to student attitudes about immigrants (H1).
H2: Immigration benefits moderate the path from resource competition to immigration attitudes such that a higher level of benefits will reduce or eliminate the competition-attitude path.
Fear (Xenophobia)
We next turn to social identity theory as a conjectural lens to study how predispositions about immigrants impact student attitudes toward the benefits and costs of immigration (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The theory focuses on how individuals tend to categorize things, including ourselves and others, into groups (Westerman et al., 2002). Such social categorization leads to “in-groups,” the groups to which we belong and/or favor, and “out-groups,” to which we do not belong or favor. Membership in a group serves as a significant source of one’s pride and self-esteem while threats from out-groups manifest as fear and anxiety (Sniderman et al., 2004). Individuals, therefore, tend to adjust their perceptions to make their in-group seem better and out-groups appear worse. To feel better about their in-group, that is, they may exaggerate differences between the groups, seeking out negative characteristics of the out-groups and positive characteristics of the in-group. These reactions increase perceived fear and conflict among the groups and can be a significant driver of intergroup attitudes and behavior.
For immigration, social identity theory may manifest as varying levels of xenophobia, defined as a fear or dislike of people from other countries (van der Veer et al., 2013), which can create animosity between the native in-group and immigrant out-group. Given the above arguments, xenophobic fear itself may also explain overall business student immigration attitudes.
H3: A higher level of xenophobia leads to a more negative attitude about immigration.
We emphasize the difference between the application of RCT in H1 and H2 versus social identity theory in H3. RCT represents a competition for resources while social identity theory represents a competition for group identity. Existing literature remains unclear on whether RCT and social identity work together to affect attitudes. Some literature positions the theories as mutually exclusive, while others suggest that they work together to impact attitudes (Sniderman et al., 2004). In fact, Sniderman et al. (2004) contend that perceived economic threats stemming from immigration are closely linked to self-esteem. Similarly, Brader et al. (2008) relate intergroup fears to perceptions of immigration benefits. Such ideas subsequently link the self-esteem and fear aspects of social identity theory to the economic elements of RCT. From this perspective, xenophobia may also serve as an antecedent to both perceived resource competition (in H1) and perceived benefits of immigration (in H2).
H4: A higher level of xenophobia leads to a higher level of perceived resource competition with immigrants.
H5: A higher level of xenophobia leads to a lower level of perceived benefits of immigration.
Methods
Survey Development and Administration
The research model in Figure 1 depicts all five hypotheses. To assess this model, we surveyed undergraduate students taking business courses at two large, public universities in the southeast U.S. Appendix A lists the survey items and scales, which work in combination to reflect the complexity of immigration impacts, including economic factors (e.g., jobs), public policy (e.g., financial aid), and social concerns (e.g., cultural loss). For the survey, we applied the definition of “immigrants as people who come from other countries to live here in the United States.” This definition was adopted based on feedback during the scale development process over confusion with the term “nonresident alien.”
Combined theories of business student immigration attitudes.
The items measuring overall immigration attitudes come directly from a continuing poll by Gallup (2020) to allow a direct comparison of student attitudes to those of the larger U.S. population. These industry-based scales have also been validated in scholarly work (Dunaway et al., 2010; Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). For the resource competition construct, we applied scales directly from Esses et al. (1998), and the survey items for xenophobia were applied from van der Veer et al. (2011). The resource competition and xenophobia constructs use Likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Despite a wealth of literature discussing the potential benefits of immigration, we were unable to uncover corresponding survey scales. We, therefore, developed scales based on arguments for immigration benefits presented in a letter from 1,470 economists (New American Economy, 2017). Despite varying political stances and free market views, these economists are strongly unified in their positive outlooks of the economic benefits of immigration, including innovation and supply of workers with diverse skill sets. We converted all their key points into survey items (1—strongly disagree to 7—strongly agree), only changing their wording to make the scales more concise and parsimonious.
To enhance survey reliability and validity, we first asked six professors and a research assistant with expertise in survey development to review the drafted scales for wording and clarity. We incorporated their inputs into an updated version of the survey, which we then tested with a panel of 89 graduate business students. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the pilot responses with acceptable results. All composite reliabilities exceeded .80, factor loadings exceeded .70, average variance extracted (AVE) values exceeded .50, and heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) values fell below .85 (Hair et al., 2014; Henseler et al., 2015).
The final survey was then distributed to undergraduate students taking business courses at the two large, public universities in the southeast U.S., which tends to hold more conservative immigration views relative to other areas of the country (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). The survey was distributed via Qualtrics, an internet survey tool, to 5,950 students, resulting in 824 usable responses (13.8% response rate). Table 1 summarizes respondent demographics, including student gender, political affiliation, and immigration background. While we did not collect age, the student populations at both schools can be considered similar to those of large, public universities, consisting primarily of traditional students (i.e., ages 18–22) with a smaller number of older students.
Survey Demographics.
Responses to a subsection of the survey questions (xenophobia) were collected from 28 non-respondents with the results not statistically different than those of respondents. Concerns of non-response bias are, thus, minimized. Assessing collinearity and common methods bias, factor level variance inflation factors (VIFs) are all less than the recommended value of 3.30, except for Comp4 (Kock, 2015). Therefore, we removed Comp4 from the analysis.
Descriptive Statistics
Finding no statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the two schools, we proceeded with the combined data set. Tables 2 and 3 present descriptive statistics for the survey items. First, Table 2 highlights the comparison of student immigration attitudes versus those of the general U.S. public via Gallup data collected during the same time frame as the student data. The results reveal that the students hold a more moderate position on immigration. Specifically, students responded to both increasing and decreasing immigration less frequently (item Att1) than the U.S. public, aligning more toward maintaining existing levels. Furthermore, students more so have mixed feelings about immigration’s impact on the country versus the U.S. public who largely sees immigration as positive (item Att2).
Survey Results—Overall Immigration Attitudes (U.S. Population vs. Students).
Survey Results—Resource Competition, Immigration Benefits, and Xenophobia.
All constructs measured from 1-strongly disagree to 7-strongly agree.
Significant difference from female students at p < .001, 11p < .01, 1p < .05.
Significant difference from Democrat students at p < .001, 22p < .01, 2p < .05.
Significant difference from non-immigrant students/family at p < .001, 33p < .01, 3p < .05.
Probing deeper, Table 2 also presents student immigration attitudes based on gender, political affiliation, and immigration backgrounds, portraying some disparities across students. On one hand, immigration views are relatively similar between females and males, with females being a bit more positive. On the other hand, Democrat students hold significantly more positive views on immigration than Republican students, which aligns with existing research (Kafura, 2019). Furthermore, students who are themselves immigrants and/or have at least one parent who is an immigrant hold attitudes that are significantly more positive than the collective student group as well as the general U.S. population.
Examining Table 3, responses to resource competition and immigration benefits remain rather moderate near the neutral value of four with students on average slightly disagreeing with competition for resources and slightly agreeing with the benefits. Specifically, the means of competition for resources fall between 3.15 and 4.29 with the students agreeing more to the financial aid concerns (Comp7, Comp8) than job anxieties. Examining immigration benefits means fall between 4.23 and 5.36 with diverse skill sets (Ben14) and labor shortages (Ben10) being the strongest items. Table 3 also indicates relative disagreement with xenophobia with mean values (1.87–3.65) being a bit more disparate than the other constructs. Students most strongly disagree that interacting with immigrants makes them uneasy (Xeno15).
The results in Table 3 indicate, however, that student responses vary significantly by demographics. Male students perceive statistically higher levels of resource competition and xenophobia. Additionally, Republican-affiliated students perceive significantly more resource competition, a lower level of benefits, and a higher level of xenophobia than Democrat-affiliated students. Finally, students who are immigrants and/or have at least one parent who is an immigrant perceive less resource competition, a greater degree of benefits, and lower levels of xenophobia than their non-immigrant student counterparts.
Measurement Model
We selected partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the research model. Scholars emphasize PLS-SEM over covariance-based SEM when the objective of the research is to evaluate the relative importance of antecedents in predicting the dependent variable (Hair et al., 2011; Jöreskog & Wold, 1982). Also, PLS-SEM is preferred for theory development (Hair et al., 2011). Although the applied realistic conflict and social identity theories are considered developed, the combination of the theories herein has not been confirmed. Furthermore, unlike covariance-based SEM, data normality does not need to be assumed with PLS-SEM (Hair et al., 2011) as Shapiro-Wilk tests indicate that all of the survey items have significant skewness and kurtosis to signify underlying non-normality.
We applied standard PLS-SEM procedures established by Hair et al. (2014). Table 4 presents the correlation matrix, and Table 5 reveals a strong measurement model. First, composite reliabilities are all substantial (i.e., >.80), and AVE values all exceed .50. Two factor loadings (Ben9 and Xeno17) are less than .70 but are still above the suggested .50 minimum. So, these items are retained (Hair et al., 2014). Discriminant validity is verified with all HTMT values falling below .85 and associated confidence intervals all falling below a value of one (Henseler et al., 2015). All VIF values fall between 0.20 and 5.00, reducing concerns of collinearity. As mentioned earlier, however, item Comp4 was removed due to a VIF value exceeding 3.30, which indicates concerns with common method bias (Kock, 2015).
Correlation Matrix.
Significant at p < .001.
Measurement Model Results.
Structural Model
Figure 2 portrays the structural model results, including evaluation of the hypotheses. Overall, the predictive accuracy (r2 = .50) is considered moderate with a moderate to large predictive relevance (Q2 = .37) (Hair et al., 2014). RCT does not hold as hypothesized, however. While the path from resource competition to immigration attitude is statistically significant (B = −0.28, p = .000) with a small to medium effect size (f2 = 0.07) (Hair et al., 2014), providing support for H1, immigration benefits does not moderate the path (B = 0.01, p = .84), thereby providing no support for H2. Instead, immigration benefits maintain a significant direct path to attitude (B = 0.28, p = .000) with a small to medium effect size (f2 = 0.08) (Hair et al., 2014) that was discovered during the moderation testing process.
Structural model results—realistic conflict theory and social identity theory.
Examining social identity impacts, Figure 2 shows a significant path from xenophobia to immigration attitude (B = −0.25, p = .000) with a small to medium effect size (f2 = 0.06) (Hair et al., 2014). This provides support for H3. Most notably, xenophobia also represents a strong antecedent to resource competition (B = 0.69, p = .000), including an extremely large effect size (f2 = 0.92), medium predictive accuracy (r2 = .48), and medium to large predictive relevance (Q2 = .35) (Hair et al., 2014). This signals strong support for H4. Xenophobia also represents a significant antecedent to immigration benefits (B = −0.59, p = .000) with a large effect size (f2 = 0.52) yet weak to moderate predictive accuracy (r2 = .34) and small to medium predictive relevance (Q2 = .19) (Hair et al., 2014). This indicates support for H5.
Discussion
The research results above provide a baseline for understanding business student immigration attitudes and antecedents to these attitudes. First, general student attitudes, at least for those in the southeast U.S., are more moderate than the U.S. population (i.e., Gallup). Per Table 2, students tend to favor keeping immigration at its present level (survey item Att1) and hold mixed feelings about immigration being good for the country (item Att2). With these differences, faculty should not assume that immigration attitudes of their own students align with the general population and should, therefore, survey their own students when designing course material. Similarly, the differences from the Gallup poll provide evidence that, after graduation, students will likely work with some colleagues whose immigration attitudes differ from their own.
Aligning with overall immigration attitudes, Table 3 depicts relatively moderate views of resource competition and immigration. These findings sync with existing literature portraying college students as more centrist in their views on politically-charged topics (Dodson, 2014; Luskin & Bullock, 2011). Still, Tables 2 and 3 also reveal relative disparity of student immigration views by gender, political affiliation, and immigration background. Thus, educators face a modest breadth of immigration views in the classroom.
The results also stress the importance of understanding the antecedents to these attitudes, exposing the complexity and contradictions of such antecedents. From the RCT perspective, for example, students are influenced by a perceived competition with immigrants for resources, including jobs and money (H1). Although RCT further contends that a superordinate, mutually beneficial goal can reduce the effects of perceived resource competition (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), the results reveal that the job shortage filling, skill diversity, and innovation benefits of immigration in the U.S. compete directly with resource competition, causing a conundrum for students. As shown in the correlation matrix (Table 4), students simultaneously hold concerns about resource competition with immigrants but also contradictory positive views about the benefits that these immigrants also offer.
Students must, therefore, critically process the negative impacts of resource competition relative to the conflicting positive impacts of immigration benefits. This puzzle is clouded by the fact that the benefits of immigration are not necessarily shared equitably across natives with some gaining economically from the presence of immigrants, such as by hiring them or working alongside them, while others losing economically, such as by competing for jobs (Blau & Hunt, 2019; Savino, 2014). Additionally, scholars indicate that some Americans are not well-informed about immigration with media and politics overemphasizing the supposed negatives (e.g., job loss, wage deflation) and skimming over the positive impacts (Brader et al., 2008; Pew Research Center, 2018; Scheve et al., 2001).
According to the results, immigration attitudes are further confounded by the xenophobic fear of immigrants. Incorporating social identity theory, xenophobia not only directly influences student immigration attitudes (H3) but also serves as an antecedent to RCT in the perceived competition for resources (H4) and benefits of immigration (H5). Moreover, the effect sizes (f2) of xenophobia are remarkably large for H4 and H5, revealing fear as a powerful precursor to immigration perceptions and aligning with the sociotropic concerns about immigration emphasized by Hainmueller and Hopkins (2014). Theoretically, the results also support Sniderman et al. (2004), who maintain that RCT and social identity theory may work together to explain individual immigration views. In contrast, the results contradict attempts to stress the impacts of one, such as resource competition (Esses et al., 1998; Kunovich, 2013), over the other, such as group identity (Scheve et al., 2001).
Intersections of Immigration and Business—Ideas for Educators
We contend that the research outcomes reveal potential challenges for teaching students about immigration. Like many politicized issues, the results depict overall average student immigration views as moderate. However, they also reveal dispersion of these views across gender, political position, and immigration background, meaning that students approach the conflicting opinions of immigration benefits and resource competition from many different starting points. Furthermore, these perceptions are possibly muddled by polarized and biased input from media, politicians, and perhaps the students’ own families. The combination of these factors may convert a lack of nuanced views into xenophobic fear. In all, digesting the layered positive and negative impacts of immigration is fraught with difficulties (Borjas, 1995; Münz et al., 2006). For instance, Hajro et al. (forthcoming, p. 3) highlight “paradoxical relationships between companies, nation states, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, and industry” as well as “tensions between the demand for migrant workforces and the public perception of migration . . . visible in the media and in political debates.”
Consequently, we assert that management educators must accept a primary role in guiding students through exploratory critical thinking about immigration. Early adulthood represents a critical life stage to gather information and explore values given personal maturation and work experience as well as social and historical changes (Mortimer & Lorence, 1979; Twenge et al., 2010). For instance, Arnett (2000, p. 479) portrays the college age as a “period characterized by change and exploration for most people, as they . . . gradually arrive at more enduring choices in love, work, and worldviews.” Additionally, immigration has broad and deep impacts throughout the organization, such as human resource management, diversity, ethics, and innovation. Thus, management educators have an educational responsibility to best prepare students for the challenges that they will face in the workplace, thereby enhancing student professional effectiveness and employability. Given these points, management educators are uniquely positioned to help students gather information and explore new ideas about immigration and its impacts, including creating an environment for them to constructively debate the diverse facets of immigration to arrive at their own conclusions as individuals and future business leaders.
Yet, educators face a significantly dire lack of pedagogical tools and research to incorporate immigration into course material. In response, we develop four cross-disciplinary intersections of immigration and management education for faculty to not only introduce immigration into business classrooms but also help students critically process the complex and confounding nature of their own immigration attitudes and the antecedents of these attitudes. We devised these intersections from our review and organization of existing immigration literature. Summarized in Table 6, these intersections align with our research constructs and results to help students digest the impacts of immigration on working with diverse teams and business partners, organizational human resource management and ethics, entrepreneurship and innovation, and finally, the economic and socioeconomic realities of immigration.
Pedagogical Intersections of Immigration and Management Education.
Intersection 1: Diversity and cultural intelligence
The first intersection seeks to address the strong influence of xenophobia established in the research findings via survey items Xeno15 through Xeno19. Although the students’ self-reported levels of xenophobic fear are relatively low, the research model validates how xenophobia not only is directly related to student attitudes about immigration (H3) but also serves as an antecedent to both perceived competition for resources (H4) and the benefits of immigration (H5). Moreover, the associated effect sizes (f2) of xenophobia are remarkably strong. Fear is, thus, a powerful precursor to immigration perceptions (Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2014).
Business faculty can help students address these fears by promoting the positive aspects of organizational diversity created by immigration in courses such as (but not necessarily limited to) human resources, organizational behavior, leadership, and business communication. Specifically, immigrants as co-workers and business partners offer a greater variety of experiences and perspectives to enhance innovation as well as help the organization better serve its diverse customer base (Leader-Chivée, 2014). Additionally, the global reach of organizations highlights the need for students to be prepared to effectively engage with diverse colleagues and business partners (Young et al., 2018). As such, the ability to work with diverse others can help students differentiate their professional effectiveness and employability with adaptability, communication, and negotiation skills in the global job market (Groves et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2015).
Social identity theory points to ideas on how to enrich student diversity views and skills. Specifically, social identity evolves from one’s sense of group membership, instigating individuals to exaggerate differences between their in-group (e.g., natives) and out-groups (e.g., immigrants), even seeking out the outgroup’s undesirable aspects to feel more positively about their in-group (Sniderman et al., 2004). From this standpoint, intergroup contact theory maintains that interpersonal contact across groups can reduce intergroup prejudices, emphasizing several factors for success such as equal status in the relationship, a cooperative environment with common goals, and support from authorities (like faculty) (Allport, 1954).
Cultural intelligence (CQ) represents a valuable approach to learn these skills. “CQ refers to one’s ability to interact effectively with those from different cultural backgrounds and in different cultural contexts” (Young et al., 2018, p. 236). Earley and Mosakowski (2004) maintain that CQ can be taught via three skills: learning strategies to deduce “a culture’s shared understandings,” mimicking customs and physical gestures of the other culture, and self-confidence to preserve through the long, challenging process of cultural understanding. Moreover, MacNab (2012) details a seven-stage framework with a cross-cultural exercise to help students build CQ, while Young et al. (2018) present a cross-cultural mentoring exercise to enhance student CQ and empathy. Ultimately, enhancing student CQ can improve student readiness for the job market in their effectiveness in working with others in global organizations.
Intersection 2: Human resource management and ethics
Immigration represents an important source of labor in the U.S., nimbly supplementing the native workforce with both low and high skilled labor (Blau & Hunt, 2019; Davies, 2009; Dicken & Blomberg, 1991) that can also bring diverse skill sets, innovative ideas, and a higher level of employee commitment (Glazer & De La Rosa, 2008; Leader-Chivée, 2014). We operationalized these ideas in the immigration benefits construct via the Ben9, Ben10, Ben13, and Ben 14 survey items. Still, many organizations lack rigorous human resource management (HRM) policies as well as the experience needed to address the complexity of attracting and retaining immigrant labor (Hajro et al., forthcoming). Employers are regularly challenged to both meet government employment regulations, tackle workplace discrimination, and enhance workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) (Dietz et al., 2015; Youn et al., 2010). In contrast, some organizations distinguish the importance of immigrant labor, not only developing thorough HRM policies but also influencing national immigration stances (Hajro et al., forthcoming).
Business faculty can, therefore, develop exercises where students extend traditional HRM processes such as recruiting, hiring, and onboarding of labor to include aspects that may be particularly challenging for immigrant labor, such as DEI, acculturation, coping, and integration (Bhagat & London, 1999; Hajro et al., 2019; Jaffe et al., 2018)
Additionally, students can evaluate organizational best practices for HRM immigrant labor policies as well as evaluate other organizations that significantly lag these leaders. As a third potential exercise, faculty can have students compare and contrast immigration and labor policies at national, state, and local levels then critically assess the policies in their local area and state to recommend potential changes. Helping students to understand immigration impacts on HRM better prepares them for the expectations and challenges of professional practice and applies to suggested courses such as human resources, organizational behavior, operations/supply chain management, and international business.
Yet, discussion of HRM also necessitates reflection on ethical labor practices and enforcement throughout global supply chains for fair treatment of immigrant laborers, who frequently suffer from unfair recruiting, harsh working conditions, low pay, and abuse from supervisors (Davies, 2009; Maloni & Brown, 2006). Additional concerns center on human rights violations with slave and child labor common with immigrants, even in developed countries like the U.S. (Caruana et al., 2021; Stringer et al., 2016). As an exercise, faculty can ask students to assemble estimates of forced and child labor both nationally and internationally as well as research particular industries with pervasive slavery (e.g., fishing) and child labor (e.g., chocolate) issues. Students can then critically evaluate how the dominant producers and retailers in these industries have addressed (or failed to address) such problems. Students can also debate ideas such as how to raise consumer awareness of immigrant labor issues and how to impact industry norms for immigrant labor practices. Such exercises, which apply well to courses in human resources, organizational behavior, international business, and operations/supply chain management as well as ethics and business law, train students on the complex expectations of managing global and diverse organizations under the increased scrutiny of consumers and non-government organizations.
Intersection 3: Entrepreneurship and innovation
Immigration is positively related to innovation and entrepreneurship. These ideas were captured in the analysis via survey items Ben11 and Ben12 and apply most directly to suggested courses such as entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business to expand student considerations of the broad and significant impacts of immigration on new business start-ups and organizational innovation. This will allow our students to enhance innovation speed and effectiveness in professional practice.
To begin, immigration itself is an entrepreneurial act by enduring the risk of leaving one’s homeland to “invest’ skills and human capital in another” (DelCampo et al., 2011, p. 331). Moreover, immigrants can bring unique skills from their home countries that facilitate new venture success (DelCampo et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2012). As evidence, immigrants, or offspring of immigrants, represent the founders of approximately 40% of Fortune 500 companies (Achidi Ndofor & Priem, 2011; Ali, 2017). Likewise, immigrants infuse organizations with different and innovative ideas (Leader-Chivée, 2014).
From this perspective, scholars portray a global competition to attract immigrants to drive innovation (Wadhwa, 2012). Faculty can help students better recognize this strong link by assigning students to study well-known innovative companies that were founded by immigrants (or children of immigrants), including contemporary examples such as Google and Tesla. Students can trace the founder’s origins and migration as well as critically assess how their international perspective helped to start and grow the business. Factors may include eagerness to succeed in the new culture, applying unique skills from their home country, and leveraging social and economic endowments (Achidi Ndofor & Priem, 2011; DelCampo et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2012).
Intersection 4: Immigration, economic impacts, and socioeconomic realities
As a fourth intersection, faculty can challenge students over preconceived notions of the economic and socioeconomic impacts of immigration, which were measured with survey items Comp3 through Comp8 as well as Ben11. Perceptions of the sources of this competition are clouded by a lack of accurate information as well as complicated empirical evidence. Similarly, Hajro et al. (forthcoming) include the notion of “irreversibility,” defined as a preconceived notion about something that is difficult to displace (Dyer & Hurd, 2018; Meyer & Land, 2003), in their discussion of teaching migration in business school curriculum. Students should, therefore, critically research and debate these notions in classes such as economics and international business. Given the significant breadth of the claimed impacts, this can include authenticating the sources and biases of the collected data to help the students gain sound research skills to prepare them to evaluate immigration views and policies in the workplace.
Existing literature provides support for both positive and negative economic impacts, thereby providing for potential rich student deliberation. As West (2011, p. 433) contends, “what one concludes about the exact fiscal impact varies tremendously with assumptions.” From one perspective, some older evidence exists for both wage depression and job loss of native workers (Altonji & Card, 1991; Borjas et al., 1997). Yet, the same studies also denote unclear and complex impacts of immigrant labor with inconsistencies across not only industries but also labor skill levels (Altonji & Card, 1991; Pearce & Gunther, 1985; Savino, 2014). In contrast, recent literature largely finds limited evidence of the negative effects of immigrants on both employment rates and wages (Blau & Hunt, 2019; Hotchkiss & Quispe-Agnoli, 2013; Savino, 2014). Furthermore, other scholars purport how immigration can fuel economic progress, high-skilled and low-skilled workforce expansion, and international trade (Blau & Hunt, 2019; Bouoiyour et al., 2019; Davies, 2009; Mundra, 2005). From this perspective, some scholars contend that immigration overall can be very positive for the economy (Blau & Hunt, 2019; Leader-Chivée, 2014).
Discussion about immigration, jobs, and the economy can also include related paradoxes of socioeconomic impacts, especially given the rapid rise of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. between 1990 and 2010 (Radford, 2019). As one paradox, some envision immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, as poorly-educated, low-skilled workers who increase crime and even pose terrorist threats (Butcher & Piehl, 1998; Sniderman et al., 2004). Moreover, immigration may evoke native concerns over poverty and welfare dependence (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). However, a relatively large proportion of U.S. immigrants are highly educated and skilled individuals who fill critical labor gaps (Davies, 2009; Savino, 2014). As another paradox, even the low-skilled labor fills critical job shortages, especially as the education of the U.S. population pushes native workers away from lower-level jobs (Dicken & Blomberg, 1991). This, thus, encourages a powerful question to pose to students: Would Americans do “dirty work” if it paid significantly more (Huddle, 1993)?
Limitations and Future Research
Our preliminary assessment of student immigration views herein has several limitations that lead to ideas for future research. Above all, the lack of existing immigration educational research required us to start from a high-level position, applying the term “immigration” without capturing the categorical complexity of immigrants (and their families) that could affect how the students might interpret the survey items (Hajro et al., 2021). For instance, we did not evaluate the region or country of immigrant origin or skill set (e.g., low-skilled vs. high-skilled). We also did not distinguish legal and illegal immigration or permanent and temporary immigrants as existing literature does reveal intricacies in attitudes based on immigrant status (Blondell, 2008; Hanson et al., 2002; Leader-Chivée, 2014). The survey could, therefore, be applied to compare immigrants as legal and illegal and also skilled and unskilled.
Furthermore, the dearth of existing survey scales was a limiting factor in our study, urging scholars to pursue further scale development. While our combined business, public policy, and social factor items successfully load together, variations in the means suggest the need for more detailed measures to better distinguish these diverse domains. Next, we only had access to students from one region of the U.S. Extant literature indicates differences in immigration attitudes by location, such as geographic region and rural versus urban residents. The attitudes of our Southeast U.S. students, which are quite moderate compared to the general public, are still expected to be more conservative than other parts of the U.S. like the Northeast (Ellison et al., 2011; Walker & Leitner, 2011). Subsequently, more geographic regions, both within the U.S. and in other countries, should be evaluated to help faculty understand the perceptions of their specific students and improve the generalizability of the findings.
While we did evaluate student demographics such as gender, political affiliation, and immigration background, other potential group moderators could include student race, diversity views, and isolationism versus cosmopolitan attitudes (Davies, 2009; Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996; O’Neil & Tienda, 2010; Smith & Womack, 2016). As another limitation, existing data of U.S. population views on immigration focus on overall immigration attitudes and not the antecedents that we studied herein. Therefore, the survey could be repeated with the U.S. population, especially given that immigration views will differ with age and education (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996; Smith & Womack, 2016). Non-business college students could also be surveyed to understand differences across academic disciplines. Additionally, the U.S. economy and job market were quite strong at the time of data collection, only to quickly change shortly thereafter. So, longitudinal data could assess differences in immigration views related to economic and labor climates (Espenshade & Hempstead, 1996). Longitudinal data could also support the effectiveness of the proposed intersection ideas presented in the Discussion section.
Finally, the strong impacts of xenophobia in the results call for a better understanding of the relationship between fear and immigration attitudes. Specifically, scholars might investigate if immigration views also influence xenophobia. Extending this idea, perhaps there is a cycle of influence in which a base level of xenophobia impacts immigration views while increased political and media stances on immigration issues further fuel xenophobia.
Conclusion
Scholars have recently questioned the intent of management research, noting neglect of some critical topics and challenging the relevance of this research (Abzug et al., 2020; Harley, 2019). While immigration represents a highly relevant topic for business, it has, by in large, been overlooked. Hajro et al. (2021, p. 25) maintain that immigration “is and will remain a permanent feature of economic growth and societal change.” That is, immigration will persist as an important topic to business and subsequently management education for years to come as countries adjust immigration policies given public sentiment and economic impacts. Hajro et al. add that management scholars “should be at the forefront in educating future business practitioners and leaders about these important issues” to give immigration the “attention it deserves in business education.” We concur, contending that management educators must undertake a focal role in teaching immigration.
Neglecting immigration not only compromises the relevancy of business teaching but also makes course material seem outdated. Moreover, such neglect further contributes to the lack of critical thought about immigration among the general population. In response, business educators have a social responsibility to help students address critical divisive issues related to racism, diversity, and inclusion. Consequently, we underscore the need for significantly more immigration pedagogical research and challenge scholars to take a leadership role in understanding the complexities of immigration attitudes. Doing so will better prepare business students for the realities that they will face in the professional workplace.
Footnotes
Appendix A
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
