Americans Remain Split on Immigration, but Significantly More Positive Than in Mid-1990s

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of Americans continue to think that the present level of immigration in this country should be either kept as is or increased, a marked change from attitudes in the mid-1990s, when almost two-thirds of Americans thought immigration should be decreased. Other attitudes toward immigration are also more positive, with a plurality of Americans saying that immigrants pay their fair share of taxes and an overwhelming majority saying they primarily take jobs that other Americans do not want. Still, there is mixed opinion on whether the net impact of immigration is mostly positive or negative for American workers and the U.S. economy.

A new Gallup poll, conducted September 11-13, 2000, shows that a plurality of Americans -- 41% -- believe that immigration should be kept at its present level, while 38% think its levels should be decreased and 13% feel it should be increased. These percentages are very similar to those from the last time Gallup asked about immigration, in February 1999, but are markedly different from opinion in 1993 and 1995, when nearly two-thirds of the public wanted to see immigration decreased.

Generally, there is a little variation on this matter by subgroup, with one exception -- education. Those with a high school education or less are more likely to favor decreases in immigration (46%) than is any other educational group -- especially those with an advanced degree, among whom only 24% favor decreased immigration. A majority of those with advanced degrees (51%) believe immigration should be kept at its present level, a view supported by only 33% of those with a high school education or less. Perhaps surprisingly, there is essentially no difference in opinion on this matter between those who are employed and those who are unemployed. Only minor differences are evident by political persuasion, as conservatives are slightly more in favor of decreasing immigration (41%) than are liberals (33%). Republicans and Democrats show very similar distributions of opinion on this issue.

Public Disagrees on the Effects of Immigration
Americans are divided over whether immigration is on balance mostly beneficial or detrimental to the American economy, just as they were in early 1999. This represents a change from the mid-1990s, however, when the majority of Americans felt immigration hurt both the U.S. economy and American workers.

The latest poll shows that 44% of Americans think immigrants mostly help the economy by providing low-cost labor, while 40% think they mostly hurt it by driving wages down, with 16% offering no opinion. In 1999, more Americans felt that immigration mostly hurt the economy (48%) than helped it (42%), so the plurality of opinion has shifted on this issue in the last year. A 1993 poll, though, showed that 64% of Americans thought immigrants mostly hurt the economy while just 28% thought they helped.

Regional differences exist on this issue today, with those residing in the western U.S. more likely than those in all other regions to say that immigrants help the economy (55%). Differences in opinion are also apparent by education, as 67% of people with graduate degrees believe that immigrants help the economy, compared to 47% of adults with some college education and only 40% of adults with a high school education or less.

Americans are also somewhat divided as to whether immigrants become productive members of society and pay their fair share of taxes in the long run or whether they cost the taxpayers too much by using government services. Forty-eight percent of Americans believe that immigrants pay their fair share of taxes while 40% believe they cost taxpayers too much. Opinion on this issue was more evenly split in 1999, when 47% felt that immigrants became productive citizens and 45% thought they cost taxpayers too much. In 1993 and 1994, a majority of Americans (56% and 57%, respectively), believed that immigrants cost the taxpayers too much, while fewer than 40% felt that immigrants paid their fair share of taxes.

Again, today, there are considerable differences in opinion on this matter by education. Seventy-one percent of those with advanced degrees believe that immigrants become productive members of society, compared to 54% of those with college degrees, 47% of those with some college and only 40% of those with a high school education or less. Those with a high school education or less are twice as likely as are those with advanced degrees to believe that immigrants cost the taxpayers too much, by a 46% to 22% margin. Differences on this matter are also apparent by income: those at higher income levels are more inclined to believe that immigrants eventually become productive members of society than are those at lower income levels.

Public Agrees That Immigrants Tend to Take Jobs Others Do Not Want
Americans are of like mind on what kinds of jobs immigrants take. In the latest poll, fully 75% of the public say that immigrants mostly take low-paying jobs Americans do not want. Only 13% say they take jobs Americans want. Substantial majorities of Americans have always felt that this was the case, even in 1993 when the public was more opposed to immigration than it is now.

Survey Methods

The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,008 adults, 18 years and older, conducted September 11-13, 2000. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 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.

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

 

 

	Present level	Increased	Decreased	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2000 Sep 11-13	41	13	38	8
1999 Feb 26-28 ^	41	10	44	5
1995 Jun 5-6	24	7	65	4
1993 Jul 9-11	27	6	65	2
1986 Jun 19-23 †	35	7	49	9
1977 Mar 25-28	37	7	42	14
1965 Jun 24-29	39	7	33	20
^ Based on 514 national adults; margin of error ± 5 PCT. PTS.
† CBS/New York Times

 

 

Which comes closer to your point of view -- [ROTATED: immigrants in the long run become productive citizens and pay their fair share of taxes, (or) immigrants cost the taxpayers too much by using government services like public education and medical services?]

 

 

	Pay their fair share of taxes	Cost taxpayers too much	No opinion
2000 Sep 11-13	48%	40	12
1999 Feb 26-28	47%	45	8
1994 Dec 16-18	36%	57	7
1993 Jul 9-11	37%	56	7

 

Which of the following statements comes closer to your view [ROTATED: immigrants mostly take jobs that American workers want, or immigrants mostly take low-paying jobs Americans don't want]?

 

 

	Take jobs Americans want	Take jobs Americans don't want	BOTH/NEITHER (vol.)	No opinion
2000 Sep 11-13	13%	75	8	4
1999 Feb 26-28	16%	71	8	5
1993 Jul 9-11	23%	67	8	2

 

 

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

 

	Mostly help	Mostly hurt	NEITHER (vol.)	BOTH (vol.)	No opinion
2000 Sep 11-13	44%	40	7	3	6
1999 Feb 26-28	42%	48	3	1	6
1993 Jul 9-11	28%	64	2	2	4

 

 

(vol.) Volunteered response