The latest estimates suggest there are around 45 million immigrants in the United States, or 14% of the population. It’s believed that around 11 million of these are undocumented. The precarious nature of many of these undocumented migrants means that low-income work is common and charities can often play a vital role in supporting them.

Research from the University of Washington sadly suggests, however, that Americans are less likely to financially support charities when they’re made aware that the charity helps immigrants.

Reluctant support

The researchers created an imaginary charity and sent a survey to over 1,200 people to assess their willingness to donate to the charity (called “Help Kids Thrive”). The description of the charity focused on one of four groups: homeless families; families who had recently immigrated from either Mexico, Guatemala, or El Salvador; families who had recently immigrated from either China, India, or the Philippines; or undocumented families from anywhere in Latin America.

The respective countries were chosen because they are among the top sources of immigration into the US and the volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the four groups, where they were told how the charity helps families in those categories. They also tinkered with the suggested donation amounts, with half asked to choose between either $5, $10, $15, or $20, while the other half saw higher suggested amounts: $20, $40, $60, $80.

The results showed that across the board, around half of the volunteers said they would be happy to donate, with figures ranging from $1 to $500. Sadly, however, people appeared less willing to support the charity when immigrants were the recipients of their help, with this likelihood even lower when the immigrants were undocumented.

Quantitively, 67% said they would help the charity when it supported low-income families. This fell by 13% when it helped immigrants, with no meaningful difference between Latin American or Asian immigrants, and down to just 47% who said they would help the charity if they supported undocumented immigrants.

A reasoned decision

Perhaps most importantly, when the researchers tested people’s knowledge of the charity itself, they found that those people who had read the experiment closely were far more likely to support them regardless of who the eventual recipients were. Indeed, even the general attitude of the volunteers towards immigrants didn’t materially affect their willingness to donate when they were engaging their brains rather than their emotions.

This conscious deliberation appeared to be crucial, and more so than any shared racial or ethnic identity with the beneficiaries of the charity. Interestingly, what did appear to influence people was whether they themselves spoke a second language at home, as these people were more likely to say they would donate.

With migration continuing to rise, and likely to continue doing so as things like climate change force many more from their homes, it is inevitable that charities will have to plug the gaps in governmental support offered to people moving to another country. These findings illustrate how much harder these charities have it to raise support, even when the recipients are among the neediest in society.