How Sexuality Affects Evaluations of Immigrant Deservingness and Cultural Similarity: A Conjoint Survey Experiment

Do Americans view lesbian and gay (LG) migrants as more deserving of entry to the U.S. than their straight counterparts? Recent changes in U.S. federal policy have contributed to significant increases in LG migration, yet little is known about how Americans view this expanding population. Although Americans are increasingly polarized on their views toward migration, support for gay and lesbian migrants may be cross-cutting. Using a conjoint survey experiment of 1,650 respondents, we investigate how immigrants' sexual-minority status affects Americans' perceptions of their deservingness for admission. Moreover, we evaluate how deservingness is related to evaluations of cultural similarity. Analyses consider interactions between reason for migration, skill, and sexuality as well as heterogeneous effects based on respondent profiles. Results show that Americans overall do not perceive LG migrants as more deserving compared to straight ones, and LG migrants are perceived as less culturally similar. LG immigrants fleeing persecution are seen as more deserving of admission, and Democrats, atheists, and LG respondents consider LG migrants more deserving. This paper helps disentangle Americans' preferences for migrants' presumed cultural similarity from economic potential and humanitarian merit as well as elucidate public opinion of this under-studied group of sexual-minority migrants.