Demanding Invisibility: Examining U.S. Attitudes Toward Immigrant Political Engagement

Abstract

This article examines host society expectations that link social acceptance and political tolerance of migrants. We draw on the “invisibility bargain” framework, which demands that immigrants make valued contributions, perform social conformity, and express political passivity in return for acceptance of their presence in the country and avoidance of backlash. We test this theory, originally developed in Latin America, with original U.S. survey data from a national sample. We find strong evidence that the invisibility bargain shapes attitudes and beliefs in the United States, especially about the acceptance/rejection of the presence and political activism of migrants with minority linguistic and religious characteristics. We further refine the conceptual framework by showing that conservative identity, authoritarianism, and especially social dominance orientation magnify negative attitudes toward immigrants with minority cultural identities and those who engage in overt political activism. Finally, we disentangle the types of “valued contributions” that increase or diminish migrants’ perceived legitimacy to participate politically, finding legal status and military service to be most salient. Our study shows that the invisibility bargain captures a nuanced pattern of conditional acceptance that goes beyond mere generalized anti-immigrant attitudes, and contributes to better understanding the linkages between migrant identity and political inclusion.