Do Demographics Explain American Public Opinion Trends in the Level of Threat Towards Immigrants and Refugees?

Background and Purpose

While issues about Immigrants and refugees are challenging, analyses of public attitudinal trends are rare. Limited research and information regarding public opinion toward immigrants and refugee are available. The purpose of this study is to provide information about trends of attitudes toward immigrants and refugees in the United States with two specific questions: Whether or not people see immigrants and refugees coming in to the U.S. as a critical threat and how this can be different among different segments of the population in terms of their demographic characteristics.

Methods

We used longitudinal data from the Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It was designed to investigate the opinion and attitudes of the general public on matters related to foreign policy. For this study, we used six waves from1998, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2015 of the longitudinal data. People were asked about their views on immigrants and refugees raises a host of issues. Threat levels were analyzed and compared by demographics (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and regions).

Results

Over the years, treat levels among people in the United States have been changed from ‘critical threats’ to ‘important but not critical threats,’ although there was a higher level of perceived threats between 2002 and 2004. This could be related to 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 when a greater number of Americans perceived the terrorist attacks were a ‘critical treat.’ With respect to demographic characteristics related to levels of threats toward immigrants and refugees, more females than males were likely to perceive that immigrants and refugees are a threat to the U.S. Older generations had a higher level of critical threats than younger generations. White and biracial populations had a higher level of threats than other racial/ethnic groups. People with a lower education level were more likely to perceive critical threats than people with a higher education level. In terms of four geographic regions (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West), individuals living in the Southern region had a higher level of threats than individuals living in the other three regions. 

Conclusions

Our study showed two main results: 1) public perceptions of threats toward immigrants and refugees have changed from ‘critical threats’ to ‘important but not critical threats’ since 2008, and 2) public perceptions of threats toward immigrants and refugees varied by personal demographics. Implications for policy and future research will be discussed.