Americans’ post-9/11 views on immigration are conflicted and nuanced, report finds

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

Ten years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans feel conflicted about the role of immigrants in the United States, according to a report released this week.

While most Americans consider immigrants to be hardworking and to have strong family values, they are divided on whether or not the influx of newcomers from other countries strengthens the United States, according to the report, “What It Means to Be American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years After 9/11,” by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.

Opinions on this and other issues in the survey tended to fall along party lines, with Republicans casting immigration in a more negative light than Democrats and independents.

A majority of Republicans (55 percent) and Americans who associate themselves with the tea party movement (56 percent) say newcomers from other countries threaten traditional American customs and values, while a majority of Democrats (62 percent) and independents (56 percent) say newcomers strengthen American society, the report said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/americans-post-911-views-on-immigration-are-conflicted-and-nuanced-report-finds/2011/09/07/gIQAergcAK_story.html

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Also, 51 percent of those surveyed advocate deportation of ALL illegal immigrants...no compromise, no DREAM Act, no amnesty (up from 42 percent since March 2010), but 62 percent advocate a path to citizenship for some such immigrants if border security is improved. Also, deportations have increased consistently under both the Bush and Obama administrations (here are some articles to counter right-wing scare-mongering).

And wow, 56% of Tea Party supporters feel threatened by foreigners? And the Tea Party got angry at the NAACP for that TeaPartyNationalism.com study (the association went as far as to point out only that there are racist elements within, not the broad-brush the whole political movement!)???

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. All my life, I'm 70, I have heard white people say

damn foreigners.
Just because they see them as different and repeat false threats.

[pampango]

2. Tea Party, Fox News Viewers Outliers on Immigration, Islam

The survey, entitled "What It Means to be American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11", found that viewers of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News were significantly less tolerant and more distrustful of Muslims than the general public.

"The generational patterns – young people on the whole are more sympathetic than their elders to both immigration and diversity – suggest that over the long run, we will resolve these arguments, as we have in the past, in favour of inclusion. While a majority of self-described Democrats, Independents, and those who most trust CNN and public television for their news disagreed with the proposition, about two-thirds of Republicans, Tea Party followers, and respondents who most trust Fox News as a news source said they believed Islamic values were indeed at odds with American values.

On immigration, a large majority (62 percent) said they favoured a comprehensive approach to reform that combines enforcement of existing laws with a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants over one that featured strict enforcement and deportation only (36 percent).

While nearly three in four Democrats and more than six in 10 Independents favoured the first approach, Republicans were nearly evenly divided and nearly six in 10 Tea Party sympathisers favoured the strict enforcement option. Here, too, the partisan differences were significant. While 62 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Independents saw immigration positively, 55 percent and 56 percent of Republicans and Tea Party sympathisers, respectively, said it threatened traditional values.

Nearly half (46 percent) of all respondents said they believe discrimination against whites has become as big a problem in the society as discrimination against blacks and other minorities. ... Six in 10 Republicans and Tea Party sympathisers, compared to only 36 percent of Democrats, also agreed. But the biggest gap in perception was between respondents who most trusted public television and those who rely on Fox News, according to the Survey. Nearly seven in 10 Fox News viewers (68 percent) said they agreed that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as that against minorities, while less than one in four (23 percent) who favour public television agreed.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105007