MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US citizens value Hispanics “hard work and family values”

A survey from the Pew organization shows United States citizens split about the presence of foreigners working in the country and their contribution to the economy.

A majority 52% described immigrants as a burden for U.S. society in terms of taking jobs from legal citizens and placing extra strain on public services such as health care, while 41% consider foreigners strengthen the country with their hard work.

Pew noted that the proportion of U.S. residents viewing immigrants as a burden was only 38% as recently as September 2000.

But the general opinion on Latin Americans, who represent the vast majority of immigrants, has improved since 1997, with 80% agreeing that Hispanics are hard-working and have good family values, compared with 63% and 75% nine years ago.

"While we see more concern over the burden they (the immigrants) may represent, we also see a larger acceptance" said Peter Kohut from Pew, pointing to US citizens' "ambivalence" about the whole phenomenon.

A similar split is observed regarding the effect of growing immigration on "traditional American customs and values", 48% said the surge in immigrants threatens those intangibles, but 45% reject the view.

Pew researchers found little correlation between political party allegiance and attitudes toward immigrants. However they did identify differences based on relative levels of income and education.

Broadly speaking, educated and high-income Americans are less worried about immigration. Broken down by ethnic group, only 29% of Latinos describe immigrants as a burden, compared with 55% of blacks and 54% of whites.

From a geographic perspective, Kohut said, "the people most exposed to immigrants tend to have fewer problems with them as a group and, in fact, more positive attitudes". "People who live in the areas most isolated from immigrants are the ones who have the greatest concern about Hispanics", he added.

On the question of what to do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States, 53% of interviews said they should be sent back to their homelands, while 40% favoured finding a way to help them remain in the US as legal residents.

In the context of proposals for a guest-worker program, 32% replied undocumented should be given Green Cards; 32% opt for temporary work visas and 27% want the migrants deported.

Two-thirds of the people surveyed said that undocumented immigrants should be denied access to social services, but an even bigger proportion, 71%, said the children of the migrants should be educated in public schools.

Despite the intense debate about immigration in Congress, according to Pew barely 4% nationwide regard it as the most important issue facing the United States.