Thursday
Jun242010
Illegal Alien Debate Affecting American Perception Of Legal Immigration
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 12:59PM
Americans are growing increasingly weary of immigrants, with 54% of the population viewing legal immigration as a problem rather than an opportunity says a recent survey. The Transatlantic Trends survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and presented to Canadian and American Immigration Department officials in New York yesterday evening, also revealed that 48% of Americans believe there are too many immigrants in the country.
Public opinion on immigration is often drawn along the lines of political affiliation, a fact that is even more obvious this year with 73% of Republicans seeing immigration as a problem, up 15% from last year. The percentage of Democrats who view legal immigration in the same light also grew from 45% to 48%. Immigration policy is gearing up to be a hot button issue in the coming election, with over two thirds of Americans saying it would influence their choice of a political candidate.
But the study also denotes an important disconnect between public perception of immigration and reality. For instance, when asked to estimate what percentage of US population was foreign born, respondents said 35 %, when in reality the number is around 14%.
"The gap is huge. This leads us to believe that education is very important here, that we don't know alot about our immigrants" says Zsolt Nyiri, Director of Transatlantic Trends, "There is alot of talk about how immigrants should learn more about their host society, and that is true, but perhaps this could be a two a way street, and that the general public can benefit from learning about the immigrants among them."
"I think the elephant in the room is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform issue and that probably has a big impact on what we are seeing in terms of public perception" says Rebecca Carson, head of the Office of Citizenship, a branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. ""The fact that we have not dealt with this issue as a country and the distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration really muddies the water."
Public opinion on immigration is often drawn along the lines of political affiliation, a fact that is even more obvious this year with 73% of Republicans seeing immigration as a problem, up 15% from last year. The percentage of Democrats who view legal immigration in the same light also grew from 45% to 48%. Immigration policy is gearing up to be a hot button issue in the coming election, with over two thirds of Americans saying it would influence their choice of a political candidate.
But the study also denotes an important disconnect between public perception of immigration and reality. For instance, when asked to estimate what percentage of US population was foreign born, respondents said 35 %, when in reality the number is around 14%.
"The gap is huge. This leads us to believe that education is very important here, that we don't know alot about our immigrants" says Zsolt Nyiri, Director of Transatlantic Trends, "There is alot of talk about how immigrants should learn more about their host society, and that is true, but perhaps this could be a two a way street, and that the general public can benefit from learning about the immigrants among them."
"I think the elephant in the room is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform issue and that probably has a big impact on what we are seeing in terms of public perception" says Rebecca Carson, head of the Office of Citizenship, a branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. ""The fact that we have not dealt with this issue as a country and the distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration really muddies the water."
Reader Comments (8)
“I think the elephant in the room is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform issue and that probably has a big impact on what we are seeing in terms of public perception” says Rebecca Carson, head of the Office of Citizenship, a branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. “”The fact that we have not dealt with this issue as a country and the distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration really muddies the water.”
rebecca, what a load of crap.
and so to this article. so the american people are too stupid to know the difference between legal and illegal immigration??? and we need "comprehensive" reform to correct it???
well, let me tell you what we "know", staff. we "know" we got screwed in the eighties with this same argument. pass reform and we'll close the border.
promise.
go ahead. you democrats ram this down our throats before nov.
go for it.
so the american people are too stupid to know the difference between legal and illegal immigration???
Well i would not go that far...but clearly there are a lot of people who are misinformed about immigration.
I mean the majority of the country thinks there are 100 million immigrants in the US!!! We dont even have half of that!!!!!!
Maybe that's why 60 % of the country supports the Arizona law...
our understanding of the scope of immigration(illegal and legal) has been warped by politicians and pundits who use anti immigration rhetoric to mask their own lack of coherent policies on important issues like financial reform, health care, the wars...and immigration!!!!!!
Its easy to blame foreigners, say things like close the boarder , build a wall or send them back...A lot tougher to come up with realistic solutions...
Legal residents (citizens and legal immigrants) are tired of paying for illegals (health care, education, police, housing, social services , ad nauseum) that the feds are responsible for keeping out. It doesn't matter what your political bent or ethnicity. Taxpayer dollars are supporting illegal activities and their upkeep. With so many other issues pressing - like unemployment, energy concerns, health care - heads will roll, electionwise , for any politician pursuing comprehensive immigration reform aka amnesty.
Illegal aliens are destroying this Country, and one would have to be almost blind not to see this. How much longer do we have to support these illegal aliens? How much longer do we have to school their illegal alien children? How much longer are we going to let them have our jobs? How much longer are we going to put up with all the crime, stolen identities, forged documents, fake green cards? How much longer are we going to allow these illegal aliens to send money out of this Country and bring our Country down? Oh, amnesty will correct all this. WRONG! Nothing will change except we wouldn't be able to call them illegal aliens any more. Let's get rid of these illegal aliens! Let's get them back to their own Country where they belong!
It's time for ZERO TOLERENCE with these illegal aliens. It's time for them get out of this Country and back in their own Country where they belong. When we get rid of the illegal aliens, we will get rid of all the problems that go with them. THAT IS A FACT!
Get behind Arizona. They are leading the way.
Thank You for your the fantastic and educational report. I will be examining in turn in several times for some much more updates.
Cheers for the insightful post on the this matter!
I haven’t visited your blog in ages, but really enjoyed this post! Makes a welcome change from the usual stuff I’ve been RSS’ing lately. Can I ask where you got the idea to write about this?
[...] Illegal Alien Debate Affecting American Perception Of Legal … [...]