A new Cato poll finds that nearly three-fourths (72%) of Americans believe immigrants come to the United States to “find jobs and improve their lives” while 27% think immigrants come to obtain government services and welfare.
The Cato Institute 2021 Immigration and Identity National Survey of 2,600 U.S. adults seeks to explore and examine why Americans support or oppose a more open immigration regime. Americans have complex views on the subject—views they often are unsure how to express. Most Americans have very positive views of immigration and few have outright wholly negative views. However, many Americans remain conflicted, perceiving immigration to present both immense benefits but also challenges. Academic scholarship and in‐depth interviews with experts and laypersons who support more or less immigration informed the questionnaire design for this survey.
The survey seeks to quantify these different beliefs and then moves deeper to understand what drives support or opposition to immigration. Given the many benefits of immigration, careful attention is paid to understanding opposition to increasing immigration and the desire to decrease it. For simplicity, this report often refers to those who want to decrease immigration as “immigration Restrictionists,” those who want to increase immigration as “immigration Expanders” and those who want to maintain current levels as “immigration Maintainers.”
