The non-profit group Public Agenda has done a massive and exhaustive survey of the attitudes and experience of immigrants to the United States. For the next few days only, you can download a free copy of the complete survey report. You have to register, but it's free. But hurry, since it'll only be free for a very limited time.
I found parts of it interesting, and much of it challenges the easy preconceptions a lot of people have about immigrants, their attitudes and experiences...
What I found most heartening is the positive attitudes they overwhelmingly express about America and their choice to come here.
As other surveys have uniformly shown, immigrants who speak English as a second language overwhelmingly oppose bilingual education for their children, and believe by 2:1 margins that all classes should be taught in English. 87% believe that immigrants should learn to speak English. 73% believe immigrants should work and stay off welfare. 84% believe that immigrants should respect people of different races and backgrounds.
A majority of them (59%) feel that there is a significant amount of discrimination against immigrants here, and yet, amusingly, 69% of them say that they personally have experienced little or no such discrimination. That tells you something, I think, about politicians and other media figures who constantly harp on discrimination. Apparently, large numbers of people who've never experienced it are convinced that it's widespread anyway! Notably, however, black immigrants say they see more of it. Tweasing out how much of that is simply perception and how much is real, however, remains difficult to ascertain.
Almost all immigrants are glad they decided to come here. Probably one of the more interesting results was that over 90% felt that there had been no scapegoating of immigrants after 9/11. Also, while there's some carping about bureaucracy, 44% feel that our immigration laws are basically fair, and surprisingly, almost a third (31%) believe that our immigration laws are too liberal and should be made more restrictive.
I've downloaded the complete report and plan to read it all the way through. I recommend it highly.
Thanks for the headsup --- I've printed off the report now.
I haven’t read the report yet, but based on your synopsis; Go home team!
Anyone care to email me a copy of the pdf? I'm very interested, but don't care to divulge as much info as they want for registration.
Thanks in Advance!
For as long as it lasts, here's a URL to bypass the registration:
http://www.publicagenda.org/PDFStore/PDFs/now_that_im_here.pdf
Thanks! That did the trick nicely, got it on the HD now.
Be thankful you are not represented by any corrupt Arab regime.
14 years in America and the only instance of racism I have *ever* encountered when I walked into an all-white college bar outside Baton Rouge with a (white) female friend and her three (also white) roommates.. some of the local boys got a bit bent out of shape.
Curious I still remember that. I must have been too drunk and a little naive at that time. :-) My point is not to minimize the fact that racism still exists, but that there is a real disconnect between what media and political types "think" happens to immigrants and what really happens to them. If they would pay attention to the people themselves instead of their socilogists and analysts, they might know what they are talking about..
>>My point is not to minimize the fact that racism still exists, but that there is a real disconnect between what media and political types "think" happens to immigrants and what really happens to them. If they would pay attention to the people themselves instead of their sociologists and analysts, they might know what they are talking about.
Salman,
Do you believe this might be due to news people looking for information confirming their preconceived opinions and missing anything else?