Americans' Attitudes Toward Immigrants

In a new survey it was found that young people are more positive toward immigrants than Americans' over the age of 60.

The survey, conducted by Hamilton College, shows a large majority of Americans (60 percent) support allowing legal immigrants to vote in local elections, with the strongest support coming from young Americans and opposed only by a majority of those over age 60.

Similarly almost half of all young people feel the government should focus more on integrating illegal immigrants into American society, and 60 percent of youth strongly or somewhat approve of President Obama's performance compared with only 40 percent of those age 60 and older.

To measure attitudes toward immigrants, respondents were asked a series of questions that measure different dimensions of perceived character of immigrants and their impact on American society including whether they commit crimes or follow the law, contribute to the economy or hurt it, and are more likely to go on welfare or pay taxes. These are some of the significant findings:

Overall, most Americans hold a neutral position toward immigrants with perhaps a slight tilt toward negative views. Broken down by age, young people are slightly more positive toward immigrants. When asked what kind of impact immigrants had on their community as opposed to the country, all respondents are less negative in their responses and young Americans are significantly more positive in their assessment of the impact of immigrants than are older Americans.

When asked whether the United States should focus more on integrating illegal immigrants into American society or should it do more to enforce laws against illegal immigration, almost 50 percent of young people feel the country should focus more on integrating illegal immigrants into American society.

Source: ANI