In Rhetoric and Reality On The U.S.- Mexico Border the University of Texas at San Antonio’s K. Jill Fleuriet highlights how distorted the popular narrative about immigration is.  The portrayal not only of immigrants themselves in the popular press but also the very borderlands they attempt to cross and often settle in is hugely important in forming the national narrative about immigration, but it’s also a portrayal that is usually incredibly misleading.

“My Valley — a borderlands rich with potential, creativity, and diverse approaches to solving problems that face our nation — is so different than what the American public most often thinks of as “the border”, she says “Most people who don’t live in the region treat it as a dangerous, faraway place that threatens the social fabric of our nation.”

False portrayal

It’s a misleading portrayal that is mirrored in a recent study by the Annenberg School for Communication.  As with Fleuriet’s research, the study highlights that to many Americans, the borderland region is one typified by violence, child trafficking, and criminal gangs, with illegal immigrants a central part of this wild community.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a narrative that doesn’t survive much contact with reality, as the research reminds us that most Americans hugely overestimate the number of migrants associated with gangs and indeed the number of children being trafficked across the border.

This contributes to a lack of empathy for people who are largely dehumanized as a result.  It also significantly shapes the individuals’ views on immigration policy.  To try and correct this, the researchers worked on a number of interventions to try and correct any misinformation about migrants that were commonly believed.

“We noticed that false narratives about undocumented immigrants as criminals or as having criminal intentions are commonly circulated in the public,” the researchers say. “We were curious about the impact of these narratives on attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy support, and whether by correcting these narratives, we are able to foster more positive attitudes toward immigrants.”

Correcting misperceptions

The researchers compiled data on the various misperceptions Americans have about the motivation of people crossing the southern border to understand both how those perceptions shape views on immigration policy and how they could be addressed.

The results show that people, on average, believe that 15% of migrants are associated with a gang, with up to 35% of children used as props by adults to fool immigration authorities.  The reality in both instances is that just 1% of immigrants are linked with a gang and just 0.1% of children are used in such a way.

These false beliefs significantly reduced any empathy felt towards the migrants and prompted a desire for harsher immigration policy.  Interventions did prove effective, however.  For instance, when participants were shown the correct statistics or shown footage of parents and children being reunited after ICE had separated them at the border, opinions changed significantly.

These interventions not only reduced the dehumanization of immigrants but also resulted in reduced support for punitive immigration policies.

“By both correcting these false narratives about immigrants and unlocking empathy toward them, we were able to foster more positive attitudes toward immigrants and encourage greater support for more humane immigration policies,” the researchers conclude. “This gives us hope that by shifting narratives about immigrants to be both more accurate and empathetic, we can ultimately foster greater acceptance of immigrants.”