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Americans Worried About Immigration, Oppose Bush Plan

Americans Worried About Immigration, Oppose Bush Plan

Majority says immigrants hurt economy

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Two-thirds of Americans are convinced that immigration mostly hurts the U.S. economy by driving wages down, and three-quarters say that the United States should not make it easier for illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. A majority also opposes the recently proposed Bush administration plan that would allow some illegal immigrants in the United States to stay in this country if they took jobs that citizens did not want.

Background

Americans' attitudes toward immigration in general have undergone wide changes over the last 40 years.

In your view, should immigration be kept at its present level, increased or decreased?

Back in 1965 when Gallup first asked the public if immigration should be kept at its present level, increased, or decreased (using the question wording shown above) slightly more Americans said that immigration should be kept at its present level (39%) than said it should be decreased (33%). Very few felt that immigration levels should be increased (7%).

Since that time, there has been significant change in the percentages of the public who say that immigration should be decreased as opposed to staying the same (few Americans at any point in time want immigration to be increased). The number of Americans who believe that immigration should be decreased rose to as high as 65% in 1993 and 1995, times at which most indicators of the public's perceptions of the economy were quite negative. As the economy got better, Americans' interest in decreasing immigration fell, to the point in June 2001 where 41% said immigration levels should be decreased, while just about as many -- 42% -- said the immigration level should be kept the same.

But two things have happened since then that no doubt have affected attitudes toward immigration: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and a significant downturn in the economy, including, in particular, a continued majority opinion on the part of Americans that now is a difficult time to be looking for a quality job. Thus, it is not surprising to find that the percentage of Americans who wanted immigration levels to be decreased jumped to 58% in a poll conducted in October 2001. Gallup's annual update on immigration attitudes this past summer continued to find that desire for immigration levels to be decreased was higher than interest in immigration levels staying the same, by a 47% to 37% margin.

We find a similar pattern in responses to a separate question asking about the impact of immigration on the U.S. economy.

Do you think immigrants -- mostly help the economy by providing low cost labor, or mostly hurt the economy by driving wages down for many Americans?

Here again, during the "boom" years of 1999 and 2000, just about as many Americans said that immigrants helped the economy by providing low-cost labor as said immigrants hurt the economy. Now, in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 9-11, the response patterns to this question are back to what they were in 1993, with two-thirds of Americans saying that immigrants hurt the economy by driving down wages.

Attitudes Today

Thus it's clear that the current public opinion environment is one in which Americans are fairly negative toward immigration, which in turn suggests that this is not a particularly propitious time to attempt to convince Americans that illegal immigrants should either be allowed to become citizens or to stay in this country under a new, legal status.

This is underscored by the responses to a question that asks Americans directly if the country should make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens.

Do you think the United States should or should not make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens of the United States?

Responses to this question were negative in August 2001 (just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks) and have become even more so today, with three-quarters of the public saying that it should not be easier for those in this country illegally to become citizens.

The Bush Plan

The Bush immigration proposal would not make illegal immigrants citizens, but would instead, as the White House Web site characterizes it:

…match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. The program would be open to new foreign workers, and to the undocumented men and women currently employed in the U.S. This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior.

The public is less resistant to this plan than it is to the overall idea of making illegal immigrants citizens, but a majority of Americans nevertheless oppose the proposed Bush plan as it was described to them in the Jan. 9-11 CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.

As you may know, President Bush has proposed a plan that would allow some illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. to legally stay in this country for several years as long as they hold jobs that no U.S. citizen wanted to do. The plan would require these immigrant workers to return to their countries after their time under this program had expired. Do you favor or oppose this plan?

 

Favor

Oppose

No opinion

2004 Jan 9-11

42%

55

3



As indicated above, the question explicitly mentioned that the immigration reform plan had been proposed by President Bush. For this or perhaps for other reasons, Republicans are more likely to support the plan than others, although 4 out of 10 Republicans say they oppose it.

 

Favor or Oppose Bush's Proposed Immigration Plan

Favor

Oppose

No Opinion

 

%

%

%

Republicans

53

41

6

Independents

39

59

2

Democrats

33

65

2



Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,003 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 9-11, 2004. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.


Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/10195/Americans-Worried-About-Immigration-Oppose-Bush-Plan.aspx
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