Our study from late March found a partisan divide on opinions towards immigrants.
In our latest national survey, 43% said yes.
Majorities of all major religious groups say there should be a way for immigrants who are currently in the U.S. illegally to stay in the country. Their opinions are more divided when it comes to the impact of immigrants on the country. More: http://pewrsr.ch/YIgXls
"49% of Americans say immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents, while 41% say they are a burden because they take jobs, health care and housing. In a June 2010 poll, 39% said immigrants strengthened the country while 50% said they were a burden."
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Most Say Illegal Immigrants Should Be Allowed to Stay, But Citizenship Is More Divisive
We just released our full report on American priorities for 2013. We’ll be Tumbling out some interesting nuggets over the next few days, so be sure to follow.
This graph above from USA TODAY shows what policy issues Americans care about most.
"All the data suggests that people come here to work. If people came here to have babies, the flows would be pretty constant, and they are not."
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Jeff Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Research Center [Politifact]
Our latest report on Hispanic life finds that nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step.
"Both immigrants and their children are going to be an important part of the U.S. population in the coming decades. Virtually all the growth in the working age population between now and 2050 will be due to immigrants and their U.S.-born children."
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D’Vera Cohn, senior writer at the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project. [Star Tribune]
Read the latest report on second-generation immigrants: who they are, how they live, and what they believe.
“The question is, how many of them may take advantage of that?” said Mark Hugo Lopez, one of the report’s authors. “This research shows that among Mexican immigrants who are eligible to become U.S. citizens, relatively few do when compared to other immigrant groups.”
(See the latest report on Hispanic life from the Pew Research Center: Most Legal Mexican Immigrants are Not Citizens)
In case you missed it, last week we held an open Facebook chat with researchers Mark Lopez (Pew Hispanic Center) and Carroll Doherty (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press). The subject was immigration reform. We appreciate your participation and questions, and we’ve created a Storify to recap everything that was said.
Join our Pew Research Center experts on immigration data for a live chat (starting at 11:30 EST) where you can ask questions about immigration policy. Mark Lopez and Carroll Doherty will be taking questions.
Post your questions on the Facebook event page or tweet @pewresearch.
JUST RELEASED: A Nation of Immigrants: A Portrait of the 40 Million, Including 11 Million Unauthorized
Just released: A new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center
The nation’s total immigrant population reached a record 40.4 million in 2011. The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. also grew during the last decade, rising from 8.4 million in 2000 to 11.1 million in 2011. However, this population peaked at 12 million in 2007, then fell to 11.1 million in 2009. It has remained at that level through 2011.
