Public opinion on immigration
Hello from SurveyMonkey! In this week’s newsletter, Victoria is back with an exclusive deep dive on immigration and refugees–a timely topic. But first, as always, we wanted to share some of our research in the news and on our blog:
Post-Uvalde, many Americans seek action on gun control. After the shooting in Texas earlier this month, we fielded surveys among adults and teenagers in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia to better understand opinions on gun control. Compared to Australians, Canadians, and Britons, Americans are more apt to say gun violence is a major problem in their country and their local community, to worry they will be a victim of a mass shooting, and to have participated in an active shooter drill. They are also more likely to own a gun and to say having a gun in the household makes it a safer place. Read the full poll results here. Or, read coverage of our poll in the Washington Post.
It’s risky for business leaders to wade into politics. In our latest CNBC|Momentive Workforce Survey, more than half of workers in the U.S. (56%) say they approve of business leaders speaking out about social and political issues, but there’s a big catch: far fewer (32%) say they would back their own company’s leadership regardless of what they were advocating. Read our story at CNBC.
Inflation is still the top economic concern across the country. Reporters at US News & World Report cited our data in an article detailing the different ways consumers are dealing with high inflation. “Americans are cutting back on dining out, driving, monthly subscriptions and purchasing brand name products in response to higher prices, a recent survey found.” Read the full story.
Public opinion on asylum seekers in the U.S.
An asylum seeker is an individual whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed. The United Nations estimates that each year 1 million people seek asylum around the world. Early on in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Western media outlets distinguished Ukrainians as a different type of asylum seeker by describing them as “middle-class people,” “civilized,” and “relatively European”. As the United States hears asylum requests from Ukrainians, we ran an experiment to learn whether the American public views Ukrainian asylum seekers differently than asylum seekers from other countries. In short: they do.
We used a split sample to distinguish between three groups of asylum seekers: general asylum seekers, Ukrainian asylum seekers, and Central American asylum seekers. We randomly selected a third of respondents to answer a series of questions for each group. Our questions included:
Do you support or oppose making it easier for [asylum seekers/Ukrainian asylum seekers/Central American asylum seekers] to immigrate to the U.S.?
Which of the following do you think are the most important reasons why [asylum seekers/Ukrainian asylum seekers/Central American asylum seekers] come to the United States border?
Do you support or oppose making it easier for [asylum seekers/Ukrainian asylum seekers/Central American asylum seekers] to become citizens of the U.S.?
Our findings
Americans’ support for asylum seekers coming from Ukraine is significantly higher than their support for asylum seekers in general or those coming from Central America specifically
About half of U.S. adults support making it easier for asylum seekers generally (52%) and Central American asylum seekers (48%) to immigrate to the U.S. Regarding Ukrainian asylum seekers, however, support to make it easier for Ukrainian asylum seekers jumps to 67%.
Gen X, Boomers, the Silent Generation, white adults, and Republicans tend to oppose making it easier for asylum seekers generally or Central American asylum seekers to immigrate to the U.S. However, when it comes to Ukrainian asylum seekers, support doubles among Republicans and increases by at least 20% among each of these groups. Support to make it easier for Ukrainian asylum seekers to immigrate to the U.S. also sees some modest increases among Asian adults, Hispanic adults, and Independents.
Do you support or oppose making it easier for [asylum seekers/Ukrainian asylum seekers/Central American asylum seekers] to immigrate to the U.S.?
More Americans want it to be easier for Ukrainian asylum seekers to obtain US citizenship than those who say the same about asylum seekers in general or Central American asylum seekers in particular
More U.S. adults support making it easier for Ukrainian asylum seekers to become U.S. citizens (63%) than those who say the same for general asylum seekers (54%) and Central American asylum seekers (52%)--differences of 9% and 11%, respectively.
Boomers, the Silent generation, white adults, and Republicans are significantly more likely to support making it easier for Ukrainian asylum seekers to immigrate to the U.S., while Gen X and Independents are only slightly more likely to support. Younger adults, people of color, and Democrats do not show any preference for a particular type of asylum seekers to become citizens.
Do you support or oppose making it easier for [asylum seekers/Ukrainian asylum seekers/Central American asylum seekers] to become U.S. citizens?
The general public agrees on the top reason that Ukrainian asylum seekers (56%), general asylum seekers (52%), and Central American asylum seekers (51%) come to the U.S. border: to escape crime and violence.
Republicans are a notable exception, and believe asylum seekers generally (51%) and Central American asylum seekers (54%) come to the U.S. border seeking U.S. government benefits–differences of 14% and 16%, respectively.
Ukrainians are clearly a special case: Americans are significantly less likely to say Ukrainian asylum seekers come to the U.S. to find jobs, escape poverty, escape corruption, or seek U.S. government benefits, compared with asylum seekers in general or those specifically coming from Central America; they are more likely to say Ukrainian asylum seekers are coming to the U.S. for political asylum.
That’s all for this week! Thanks as always for reading.