Undocumented workers critical to state’s economy, don’t take
American jobs, poll says
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP)
– A majority of immigrants who came to the United States legally
think undocumented workers take jobs Americans don’t want and help
the economy by providing cheap labor, according to a poll released
Tuesday.
Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said illegal immigrants
accept low-end jobs. Some 73 percent said illegal immigrants helped
the economy by providing low-cost labor.
Undocumented workers critical to state’s economy, don’t take American jobs, poll says
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A majority of immigrants who came to the United States legally think undocumented workers take jobs Americans don’t want and help the economy by providing cheap labor, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said illegal immigrants accept low-end jobs. Some 73 percent said illegal immigrants helped the economy by providing low-cost labor.
“By an overwhelming percentage, legal immigrants don’t have bad feelings toward the undocumented,” said Sergio Bendixen, whose firm Bendixen & Associates conducted the poll.
It was based on telephone interviews with 800 legal immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa between Feb. 24 and March 21, researchers said. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Researchers used random digit dialing in areas of the country with high numbers of immigrant subgroups. Researchers said immigrants in 47 states were interviewed.
Researchers said the poll had 90 percent coverage of the legal immigrant population. Ten percent could have been lost because they were living in Census tract areas with a concentration of legal immigrants of fewer than 5 percent.
The poll was commissioned by New America Media, a nonprofit San Francisco-based umbrella organization for ethnic media outlets. Poll co-sponsors included the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, an umbrella civil rights organization.
The findings come as the U.S. Senate prepares to consider immigration reform proposals this week, including guest worker programs that would legalize the status of an estimated 10 million to 12 million undocumented people living in the United States.
The House of Representatives has already passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect more fences along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Protesters across the country have called on the Senate to reject that bill. A weekend rally in Los Angeles drew an estimated 500,000 people.
When told about reform proposals in Congress, 68 percent of poll respondents said they supported temporary work permits for illegal immigrants and a way for them to apply for residency after learning English and paying a fine.
That seems to undercut arguments by some lawmakers opposed to any kind of legalization program, who say it would be unfair to legal residents who’ve played by the rules.
The poll findings were in line with the opinions of many legal immigrants at the Los Angeles rally.
“Nobody comes here to get on welfare,” said Perias Pillay, 43, who was 18 when he immigrated legally from Malaysia. “They come here to work, and as long as we need workers we should let them come.”
Asked about lawmakers’ handling of immigration issues, 32 percent of those surveyed said Congress and President Bush were doing a good job.
Democrats received the highest approval with 38 percent. Republicans garnered 22 percent.
“These immigrants just don’t see anybody in Congress really saying, ‘Come on, let’s be reasonable'” in the approach to reform, Bendixen said.
More than 60 percent of immigrants interviewed said they were alarmed by the tone of the immigration reform debate. Sixty-seven percent said they believed anti-immigration sentiment was growing, and 64 percent said it was fueled by racism.
A little more than half said anti-immigrant sentiment was affecting their lives, even though they were in the country legally.
Delia Adene, 48, who immigrated legally from Mexico and joined the Los Angeles rally, said she was worried about the intensifying rhetoric.
“I feel like people see us as criminals now because we want to help our families,” Adene said. “We do need more control of the border, but politicians need to talk about this with human justice in mind.”
