FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – As a proposal for comprehensive immigration
reform moves to the full U.S. Senate for floor debate in early June, findings from a poll
conducted by two University of Arkansas System entities indicate that different
Latino groups agree immigration law is important to them, but disagree on what
the law should do.
One
finding from the Blair Center-Clinton School Poll, for instance, showed that three
times the number of U.S.-born Latinos supported tougher immigration laws, in
comparison to foreign-born Latinos. While
the majority of both groups oppose tougher immigration reforms, nearly a third
of U.S.-born Latinos want the tougher laws, compared to less than 10 percent of
foreign-born Latinos.
Rafael
Jimeno, the Diane D. Blair Professor of Latino Studies and assistant professor
of political science at the University of Arkansas, addressed the attitudes
toward immigration reform held by U.S.-born and foreign-born Latinos in the
latest analysis of results from the Blair Center-Clinton School Poll. His
report was released Thursday, May 23, and may be found at the poll’s website.
The
Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society in the J. William
Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas and the University
of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service partnered to conduct a
comprehensive online national poll of political attitudes and behaviors in late
2012.
Nationally
across all ethnicities, 52.28 percent of the survey’s respondents would prefer
“tougher” immigration laws and 56.04 percent say that the issue is either
“important” or “very important.” Researchers are particularly interested in
Latino opinions on the issue because immigration reform is widely considered a
means through which lawmakers might make political inroads with the Latino
community.
“No
community is monolithic — and the Latino community is certainly no exception,”
said Jimeno. “Thanks to an over-sampling of Latino respondents, our data
allows us to explore attitudes by separating Latinos born in the U.S. and foreign-born Latinos.”
The groups’ responses to questions about their support or
opposition to tougher immigration laws was in line with previous studies, but
the differences in the legislation’s importance to the two groups was
unexpected.
In
assessing the support or opposition for such laws, 32.28 percent of U.S.-born
Latinos responded that they “favor” or “strongly favor” tougher immigration
laws, compared to 9.54 percent of foreign-born Latinos. By comparison, 41.72
percent of U.S.-born Latinos “oppose” or “strongly oppose” such laws, while
71.61 percent of foreign-born Latinos shared the attitude.
When
considering the importance of tougher immigration laws 49.11 percent of U.S.-born
Latinos said such laws were either “important” or “very important” to them, and
42.5 percent of the foreign-born concurred. In contrast, the response of foreign-born
Latinos who said that such laws were either “unimportant” or “very
unimportant,” was more than 10 points above the response of U.S.-born Latinos:,
36.72 percent to 24.23 percent, respectively.
“One possible explanation considered for this
counterintuitive result was citizenship status,” said Jimeno. “However, there
were no remarkable differences between foreign-born citizens and foreign-born
noncitizens and what differences did exist were not systematic. For example,
among the foreign-born, 40 percent of noncitizens and 47 percent of citizens
said such laws were important or very important to them. Equally, 39 percent of
noncitizens and 33 percent of citizens said such laws were either unimportant
or very unimportant to them.”
The
full report contains comparisons among nationwide attitudes and Latino
attitudes toward the importance of immigration reform and the amount of support
for tougher immigration laws. It also addresses what these attitudes may mean
for future elections.
“The
finer points may remain unclear, but what is very clear from the data is that
while native-born and foreign-born Latinos differ on how punitive they expect
immigration reforms to be, the issue is no less important to either group,”
said Jimeno. “This likely sends a murky signal to lawmakers hoping to court the
Latino vote in upcoming elections.”
Additional
reports from the Blair Center-Clinton School Poll will be released throughout
the year. Future topics include immigration and opinions of African American voters
and South vs. non-South attitudes. For more information about the Blair
Center-Clinton School partnership, please visit poll website.
About
the Partners:
The Diane D. Blair Center of Southern
Politics and Society was established in 2001 by an act of U.S. Congress. This
research center was named in honor of Diane Divers Blair who taught in the political
science department of the University of Arkansas for 30 years. The Blair Center
reflects her academic model and strives to approach the study of the American
South from a variety of angles, attempting to reveal the undercurrents of
politics, history and culture that have shaped the region.
The nation’s seventh presidential
school, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service is the
first school in the nation to offer a Master of Public Service (M.P.S.) degree,
giving students the knowledge and experience to further their careers in the
areas of nonprofit, governmental, volunteer or private sector service.
Additionally, the mission of the Clinton School’s Center on Community
Philanthropy, directed by Charlotte Williams, is to promote issues and research
into community-based philanthropy and its role in generating social, economic
and political change.