49% want immigration levels decreased.
By Raif Karerat
The Pew report that projected Asian immigrants will become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. within forty years also contained polling data that indicated a sizeable portion of U.S. residents oppose an increase in immigration to the country.
Forty-five percent of those surveyed said that the current immigration system makes American society better in the long-run, but 37 percent said it makes society worse.
Almost half (49 percent) want to see the level of immigration decreased, while only 15 percent want an increase; one-third answered that immigration should be kept at its present level.
Respondents in the “nationally representative bilingual survey of 3,147 adults” thought immigration was good for food, music, the arts, and science and technology. The positive response to immigration’s benefit to science and technology resonates with the 56 percent who believe that high-skilled immigrants should be given priority for admission over those who have family already residing in the United States.
NumbersUSA, whose tagline bluntly states, “For lower immigration levels,” claims the data indicates Americans, while welcoming to immigrants, want lower levels of immigration. According to the conservative organization’s analysis of the report, “The negative responses far outweigh the positive when it comes to the question of whether or not immigration policy is making things better or worse in relation to crime, the economy, jobs, schools, and social and moral values.”
However, the survey found that people’s attitudes toward immigration depend on their political affiliation — with Democrats more favorable than Republicans — and also on whether a person knows an immigrant personally, said Mark Lopez, director of Hispanic research at Pew and a coauthor of the report.
“If you take a look at those who know someone who is an immigrant, fewer will say that crime and the economy are worse for it,” Lopez informed the Los Angeles Times.
2 Comments
Maybe the US should suspend the H1B and other programs for some time,some US companies may be worst off,but US workers should get priority.
I do not mind more people coming here from other countries. But they do need to wait in line and come legal by our laws. And we should be able to pick who we want as citizens.