Exclusive poll: Americans are critical of today's immigrants
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
A woman from Venezuela is comforted by her daughter as she cries while retelling her journey to reach El Paso, Texas, on April 2, 2024. Photo: Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images
A majority of Americans say they believe people who are trying to immigrate to the U.S. today have "worse character" than those who came 50 years ago, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
The big picture: In the poll of U.S. adults' attitudes about immigration, many respondents expressed romanticism about the past and strong skepticism about it today — a contradiction historians say is rooted in myth and fantasy about the nation's immigrant past.
- The poll shows that current anti-immigrant sentiment is partly based on misconceptions about immigrants committing crimes and seeking welfare benefits, both of which are largely untrue.
- Republicans have made immigration a top election issue and many are increasingly using the word "invasion" to describe a record number of border crossings.
State of play: Political conflicts, climate change and more sophisticated smuggling networks are driving more people from Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S.
- Today, most lawful means of entering the country take years because of overwhelmed immigration agencies, rising levels of global migration and a limit on the number of certain visas, all of which have culminated in a massive backlog of people trying to get to the U.S.
Overall, 62% of respondents in the online survey of 6,251 U.S. adults said they believe the character of people wanting to immigrate to the country today is worse than fifty years ago.
- 76% of Republicans, 53% of Democrats and 60% of independents said the same.
Reality check: Americans 50 years ago had the same complaints about immigrants — that they reshape cities and don't assimilate — as they do today, María Cristina García, a Cornell University history professor and past president of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, tells Axios.
- García says many Americans today erroneously believe that previous generations of immigrants assimilated and the country was welcoming. The study of history doesn't bear that out, she adds.
Flashback: Immigrants, since the founding of the nation, have faced xenophobia and accusations that they wouldn't blend in.
- Ben Frankin worried that immigrants of German ancestry would overwhelm America and change its most basic virtues by introducing beer and the amusement park to American culture.
- Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century were accused of speaking too many foreign languages and failing to abandon their old customs.
- Italian immigrants were accused of holding onto radical politics and faced threats of lynching from the Ku Klux Klan.
What they're saying: Since the 1980s, immigrants have been moving to all 50 states, creating a new backlash, Michele Waslin of the University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center tells Axios.
- "We're very proud of our immigrant past, and our own family's immigrant heritage. At the same time, the U.S. is a nation of xenophobia and always has been."
Methodology: The findings in this Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll are based on a nationally representative sample of 6,251 U.S. adults conducted online, March 29-31; April 5-7; and April 12-14, 2024.
- The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the data for this population is accurate to within +/- 1.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.
Subscribe to Axios Latino to get vital news about Latinos and Latin America, delivered to your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
