RAPID: Enforcement, Citizenship Status, and the Construction of Identity

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project examines the effects of enforcement on various populations in smaller nation states in which a recent executive order intensified enforcement on the basis of demographic and citizenship status. The PIs leverage the increased visibility of enforcement agents and the increased reporting of profiling incidents to better understand the role played by enforcement institutions in the formation of group identity and inter-group relations in the country. Drawing on an original survey and survey experiment, the PIs examine how enforcement shapes the ways in which citizens and non-citizens identify their group attitudes and experiences with differential treatment. Findings will shed important light on the extent to which enforcement may exacerbate demographic group inequality, a question that has become increasingly urgent in recent years following widespread social protest against enforcement excesses in many countries. The project posits that enforcement is a key institution that shapes group identity formation and politicization, particularly in a context in smaller nation state in which enforcement forces have been deployed for out-group repression. In line with the policy feedback effects literature, the project investigates the extent to which interactions with law enforcement, a central agent of the state, serve as an important process of political socialization, teaching citizens about their rights and position in society. In the context of group fluidity in a smaller nation state, the PIs therefore hypothesize that experiencing enforcement will affect the likelihood that an out-group individual will identify as a member of the out-group, as well as to increase the degree to which their group identity is politicized. The research will draw on multiple measures of group identity to study how state coercion - during a period of heightened out-group enforcement - shapes experiences with differential treatment and strength of group consciousness along lines of both out-group and ancestry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.