Contemporary Immigration

There were around 281 million international migrants throughout the world in 2020, nearly 4% of the global population. In the decades to come, thanks to ongoing conflict, violence, political instability, and the effects of climate change, these numbers will only rise.

This book adopts a broad perspective of psychological science, encompassing both causal and normative behavior, to explore topics related to immigration including gentrification, "crimmigration," and trust between immigrants and host-society authorities.

To some, immigrants represent a threat to the established population's jobs, standard of living, communities, culture, language, and safety. Others view immigrants as offering economic benefits to society including new sources of labor and consumption, and new technical skills and knowledge—not to mention the economic and personal benefits immigrants and their families might gain as well.

While most immigrants leave their home countries for job opportunities, millions of others have been driven away due to conflict, extreme violence, political instability, and climate change.

Authors in this book provide psychological reports of the immigration experience in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, and address the challenges of integrating immigrants and refugees in host societies.

While critically assessing the immigration crisis globally, this book offers practical solutions to problems of contemporary immigration derived from theoretical constructs such as the contact hypothesis and the common group identity model, while also highlighting key areas of ongoing and future research.

• Chapter 1: Contemporary Immigration: Psychological Perspectives on Challenges and Solutions
  Fathali M. Moghaddam, Margaret J. Hendricks

Part One: Immigration in Local Community Context

• Chapter 2: Immigration to Smaller Urban and Rural Communities: Challenges and Opportunities
  Victoria M. Esses, Bukun F. Adegbembo
• Chapter 3: (Not) In Our Backyard! Threat Perceptions, Psychological Well-Being, and Collective Action Against Refugee Settlement
  Allard R. Feddes, Arnold A. P. van Emmerik, Hannah J. Babetti, Susan Bosdijk, Lisa Klawitter, Alex I. Macdougall, Annelies Romers, Sofia Tsaousoglou, Bertjan Doosje
• Chapter 4: A Mural Cannot Replace Us: Immigrant, Gentrification, and Displacement
  Kipp Pietrantonio, Jasmin Llamas, Keith McIntosh

Part Two: Immigration in a National Context

• Chapter 5: Welcoming New Members: Conflicting Reactions to Immigration
  Yuen J. Huo, Tom Tyler
• Chapter 6: Immigrants as Threat and Opportunity: The Australian Experience
  Morgana Lizzio-Wilson, Winnifred Louis, Susilo Wibisono
• Chapter 7: Attitude Polarization and Closed-Mindedness: The Immigration Issue in Malta 2010-2020
  Gordon Sammut, Luke J. Buhagiar, Rebekah Mifsud, Katya DeGiovanni, Noelle Brockdorff
• Chapter 8: Greek Talk on Migration: Constructions on Modernity Differentials and Cultural Hierarchy
  Nikos Bozatzis, Antonis Sapountzis, Liana Lardi, Maria Xenitidou
• Chapter 9: Immigration Through A Cultural Prism: Characteristics and Challenges
  Joaquim Pires Valentim
• Chapter 10: National Identity and Immigration: Threat from Undocumented Immigrants in the United States
  Margaret J. Hendricks
• Chapter 11: The Injustices of Crimmigration: Discretion, Detention, and Deportation
  Jennifer Woolard

Part Three: Immigration in an International Context

• Chapter 12: Immigration to Chile in Regional Context
  Raimundo Salas Schweikart, Margaret J. Hendricks
• Chapter 13: Social Trust Among Refugees: Using a Human Rights Lens to Understand Refugee Experiences
  Aron Tesfai, Michaela Hynie, Rubaiyat Karim, Gülay Kilicaslan, Cansu Ekmekcioglu, Palmer Taylor
• Chapter 14: From Crimmigration to [Re]integration Following the Removal of ‘Undesirable’ People from Australia to New Zealand
  Veronica Hopner, Darrin Hodgetts, Pita King, Stuart Carr
• Chapter 15: The Equality–Difference Paradox: National Policies on Pluralism
  Séamus A. Power, Michael Jindra

Part Four: Looking Ahead

• Chapter 16: Toward Solutions for Harmonious Immigrant Integration: A Psychological Perspective
  Fathali M. Moghaddam, Margaret J. Hendricks

Fathali M. Moghaddam is professor of psychology at Georgetown University, where he served as director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science (2016-2021). He also served as editor-in-chief of the APA journal Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (2014-2021).

His extensive publications include about 30 books and 300 papers, and he has won a number of prestigious academic awards.

Margaret J. Hendricks is a PhD candidate in psychology at Georgetown University. She also has a master’s in public policy from Georgetown University and a master's degree in forensic psychology from The George Washington University.

Her work has been published in Current Opinion in Psychology, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.