Seeking a Land of Opportunity: Immigrants’ Belief in the American Dream
Elizabeth Suhay, Wali Reheman, and Mark Tenenbaum
2023
Presented at APSA 2023 Anual Conference
The United States is often said to be a place where anyone can succeed economically if they simply work hard enough. Although the American Dream may be more myth than reality, it is most descriptive of immigrants’ experiences, who earn more in the U.S. than in their home countries and are more upwardly mobile than native-born Americans. What do immigrants think about the reality of the American Dream—and, by extension, the fairness of the economy—and what are the political consequences? One possibility is that immigrants are drawn to the U.S. because of its reputation for ample and equal economic opportunity but become more pessimistic in successive generations due to harsh realities. Another possibility is that immigrants become more optimistic in successive generations given their relative mobility compared to others. Yet a third possibility is that immigrants’ beliefs have little to do with their economic experiences and much more to do with cultural and political socialization. To examine these possibilities, we examine pooled survey data from the last decade from three different publicly available, U.S.- representative surveys that routinely gauge Americans’ beliefs about the fairness of the economy. On-average findings across immigrant generations vary according to the question asked and survey sample, suggesting there is not a simple relationship between immigrant generation and increasing optimism or skepticism regarding the fairness of the economy. However, we find evidence for the socialization thesis, with respect to political party in particular. Specifically, immigrants who identify with the Republican versus Democratic Party are more optimistic (versus skeptical) across generations. Finally, preliminary evidence indicates that these beliefs about the economy, even among first- generation immigrants, are often strongly related to their economic policy preferences (net controls), suggesting there is an intuitive link between perceptions of economic fairness and left-right political attitudes among new immigrants that then grows with increasing incorporation into American political culture.