Attitudes About Immigrants

Wash Times reports that Americans are down on immigration these days:

About half of those surveyed in the new poll by MWR Strategies said the immigration problem facing the U.S. is "too much immigration," while just 29 percent identified the problem as "not enough assimilation."

Michael McKenna, who conducted the poll of 1,000 registered voters, said it suggests that Mr. Bush is moving in the wrong direction by embracing a path to citizenship.

"The practical import of it is, all this yak-yak about path to citizenship—more than half the population looks at it and says there's just too much. We need less of it," he said.

More here.

But hey, however much Americans dislike immigration, we think more highly of immigrants than Europe:

Immigration anxiety has been fueling a fierce political debate in the United States, but attitudes about immigrants in this country are considerably more positive than in several European countries, AP-Ipsos polling found.

People in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are much more inclined than those in the U.S. to think immigrants are likely to get involved in criminal activity….

More than a third of Germans, Italians and Spaniards say they think immigrants are more likely to be involved in criminal activity than people born in their countries. A fourth in France and Britain feel that way….

In the U.S., about one in 10 thinks immigrants are more likely to be involved in crimes. And a majority, 52 percent, say they think immigrants are a good influence on the country.

More here.

More survey data on 'tudes toward immigrants here, via Pew Research Center in March of this year. Arguably the takeaway from that: Only 21 percent of Americans think immigration is "a very big community problem."