Contemporary American Attitudes toward U.S. Immigration

This article aims to contribute to an understanding of contemporary American attitudes toward immigration. It extends work by Espenshade and Calhoun (1993) who analyzed data from a southern California survey in June 1983 about the impacts of undocumented migrants and illegal immigration. There has not been a follow-up study that evaluates more recent evidence to see how residents throughout the United States feel about overall levels of immigration (legal and undocumented). The paper uses data from a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted in June 1993. Respondents were asked whether they would like to see the level of immigration to the United States increased, decreased or kept the same. We test several hypotheses about factors influencing respondents’ attitudes, including the importance of previously unexamined predictors. These new hypotheses relate to views about the health of the U.S. economy, feelings of social and political alienation, and isolationist sentiments concerning international economic issues and foreign relations. One important discovery is the close connection between possessing restrictionist immigration attitudes and having an isolationist perspective along a broader array of international issues.