Ipsos/Reuters Poll: Immigration Attitudes

20 April 2012

Washington, D.C. - These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters from April 9th - 12th, 2012 about immigration attitudes.

Main takeaways for the Arizona laws are:

Americans remain generally supportive of immigration laws like the one enacted in Arizona. Majorities also favor state laws allowing for immigration status checks and making it a crime to work as an illegal.
However, there is significant cognitive dissonance on who should be responsible for immigration laws. Majorities of Americans say both that immigration should only be handled by the national government AND say states have the right to make immigration laws.

Immigration politics:

The Democratic party is seen as much better for the Hispanic community. However, Americans are pretty evenly split between the immigration policies of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney/ Democrats and Republicans.

Immigration attitudes:

Most Americans remain unsympathetic to illegal immigrants with a majority believing illegals should be deported.
Americans have divergent attitudes on how welcoming the U.S. is to immigrants (illegal or otherwise). About a third of Americans agree that the U.S. has become more welcoming while 4 in 10 are unsure. About a quarter disagree with the statement.
Likewise, Americans have divergent attitudes on how minorities are being targeted by state laws. About a third of Americans agree that minorities have been targets by restrictive state laws in some states while a third is unsure and another third disagree with the statement.

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters from April 9th - 12th, 2012. For the survey, a sample of 960 Americans was interviewed online. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points for all respondents. For more information about credibility intervals, please see the appendix.

The data were weighted to the U.S. current population data by gender, age, education, ethnicity and a political values scale. Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Figures marked by an asterisk (*) indicate a percentage value of greater than zero but less than one half of a per cent. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding.

More data and full technical details are available in the topline document attached.

For more information on this news release please contact:

Chris Jackson Research Director, Public Sector Practice Ipsos Public Affairs 202.420.2011 [email protected]

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