Us and ours:anti-immigrant sentiment as a function of common resource management

In this work, we investigate how parochial concerns for common resources, such as tax-funded goods, relate to prejudice against immigrants. Previous experimental work showed majority groups assume minorities will exploit common resources without contributing toward their maintenance. We relate predictions about, and support for, various types of common resources to prejudice against immigrants in two correlational studies. Prejudice against immigrants was negatively associated with support for universal, but positively with security-related resources. Participants' prediction that minority groups would contribute less to the management of communally shared resources was reflected in the degree of negative attitudes they expressed against immigrants in particular. We discuss these results in view of political narratives about immigrants and common resource management policies.