Stigmatizing Fear: National Migrant as a Threat in Lomas de Casa Blanca, Querétaro

Abstract

In this paper, we present the preliminary results of an exploratory and descriptive study on the neighborhood Lomas de Casa Blanca, Qro., where public insecurity problems have been present for decades. The main objective of this study was to examine the perception of threat of Queretaro’s locals living in said neighborhood, in respect to national migrants and to explore how said perception is related to stereotype formation. Based on the Integrated Threat Theory, some of the main results indicate that, according to a chi-square test, stigmatization of national migrants is more homogeneous in the local’s group compared to migrant’s group; however, the latter presents the same tendencies towards their own pairs in some extent. Furthermore, a Kendall’s Tau-b test was run to explore the probable correlation between symbolic threat and negative stereotype formation. Regarding intergroup anxiety, the results indicate that this one would be lower in frequency in religious spaces.