Why do Citizens Criminalize Migrants? Experimental Evidence from a Multi-Role Country, Mexico

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7157019
AutoresMaría Del Pilar Fuerte Celis (0000-0002-9070-7223, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias de la Información Geoespacial (GEO), Aguascalientes, México), María del Pilar Fuerte-Celis, Daniel Zizumbo-Colunga (0000-0002-8712-6946, Mexico's National Council of Humanities, Science, and Technology (CONAHCYT), Aguascalientes, México, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Volumen60
Número1
Páginas387-416
Fecha de publicación2026-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Migration Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0197-9183 • E-ISSN: 1747-7379
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01979183241232625
OpenAlexW4392374772
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas73

Every year, millions of immigrants arrive in countries that play multiple roles: they expel them, receive them, or shelter them. Sometimes, citizens welcome immigrants with open arms. Other times, they perceive them as potential criminals. Surprisingly, there is little research on the determinants of criminalization in multi-role countries. In this article, we analyze the results from a nationally representative survey experiment where we investigate how two sources of variation (the skin tone and national origin of others) bias citizens’ willingness to blame suspects for crime. We find that individuals criminalize suspects more when they have a darker skin tone and, against expectations, less when they come from El Salvador. Moreover, in exploratory analyses, we find that coloristic bias is exacerbated among individuals with lower levels of education and, surprisingly, among those with a darker skin tone. Also interesting is that we found that, against contact theory, anti-American bias is stronger among Mexicans with direct or indirect cross-national contact. Our results highlight the various degrees to which migratory contexts influence public opinion

Criminalization · Criminology · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economics · Political science · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration