Framing Immigrants: New Coverage, Public Opinion, and Policy
Book by Chris Haynes, University of New Haven; Jennifer Merolla, University of California, Riverside; and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, University of California, Riverside
Reviewed by Yamil Ricardo Velez, Wesleyan University
Spring 2018

Yamil Ricardo Velez of Wesleyan University reviews Framing Immigrants: New Coverage, Public Opinion, and Policy, by Christopher Haynes, Jennifer Merolla, and Karthick Ramakrishnan. Christopher Haynes, Jennifer Merolla, and Karthick Ramakrishnan analyze media coverage of several key immigration policy issues—including mass deportations, comprehensive immigration reform, and measures focused on immigrant children, such as the DREAM Act—to chart how news sources across the ideological spectrum produce specific “frames” for the immigration debate. In the past few years, liberal and mainstream outlets have tended to frame immigrants lacking legal status as “undocumented” (rather than “illegal”) and to approach the topic of legalization through human-interest stories, often mentioning children. Conservative outlets, on the other hand, tend to discuss legalization using impersonal statistics and invoking the rule of law. Yet, regardless of the media’s ideological positions, the authors’ surveys show that “negative” frames more strongly influence public support for different immigration policies than do positive frames. For instance, survey participants who were exposed to language portraying immigrants as law-breakers seeking “amnesty” tended to oppose legalization measures. At the same time, support for legalization was higher when participants were exposed to language referring to immigrants living in the United States for a decade or more. Framing Immigrants shows that despite heated debates on immigration across the political aisle, the general public has yet to form a consistent position on undocumented immigrants. By analyzing how the media influences public opinion, this book provides a valuable resource for immigration advocates, policymakers, and researchers.
Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918318770160.