Young Adults\u27 Perceptions of Immigration through the Lens of Foreign Language

The purpose of our study was to better understand how young adults view immigration as well as the factors that may influence their views. We were particularly interested in how adults’ experience with foreign language and travel might influence their views of immigration. In addition, we assessed young adults’ knowledge of immigration to see how knowledge and attitude relate to one another. Participants responded to a scale that assessed their attitudes toward immigrants. For one third of our participants, the scale referred to “immigrants.” For another third of our participants, the scale specified “legal immigrants,” and for the final third of our participants, the scale specified “illegal immigrants.” All participants subsequently responded to scales to assess their fear of missing out, ambiguity tolerance, knowledge of immigration laws and statistics, and international experience