Thread: Poll finds 40 percent of Mexicans willing to migrate to U.S.

Poll finds 40 percent of Mexicans willing to migrate to U.S.

BY MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
The Dallas Morning News
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/times...s/12399036.htm

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Four out of every 10 Mexican adults would migrate to the United States if they had the means and opportunity to do so, according to a poll released Tuesday.

And two in 10 Mexican adults say they'd be willing to live and work illegally in the United States, the Pew Hispanic Center reported in what is believed to be the first snapshot by U.S. pollsters of Mexicans' views on migration.

With about one in every eight Mexican adults already living in the United States - and 40 percent of the nation's nearly 70 million adults willing to migrate if the opportunity presents itself - the findings could hold implications for U.S. policymakers.

Congress and the Bush administration are considering various proposals for a temporary worker program that would allow foreign workers to come here and let many of the more than 11 million illegal immigrants remain here for a number of years before returning home. Of the 10 million Mexicans living in the United States, about half are believed here illegally.

While President Bush has said he wants to begin the debate this fall, the prospects for enacting a guest worker plan - which has proven controversial among lawmakers who fear it would reward lawbreakers and spur new illegal immigration - remain unclear.

Two-thirds of the 2,400 adults surveyed in Mexico for the Pew Hispanic Center said their friends and relatives would be interested in participating in a temporary worker program.

The survey "shows that very significant portions of the Mexican adult population have the thought of migration in mind and view it as an option," said Roberto Suro, executive director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "And it's even a desirable option."

Mexican government officials were examining the study, a Mexican Embassy spokesman said, and had no immediate comment.

The survey dispels the belief that Mexicans with the least opportunities at home are most likely to head north in search of better lives. One-third of college-educated Mexicans and half of those with a high school education also voiced a desire to migrate.

"Contrary to what people might expect, the inclination to migrate isn't contained among Mexicans who are poor or who are poorly educated and who have limited economic prospects," Suro said.

Though Mexico's educational system has improved, its economy has yet to generate enough jobs sought by people with more education, he said. "People with a high school or even a college degree in Mexico believe that they have greater economic opportunity migrating to the U.S. - even illegally - than they would staying at home," he said.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which favors reduced immigration rates, contends the Pew findings challenge the belief that Mexican demographic trends and improving economic outlook will produce significantly lower migration to the United States within the coming years.

"The bottom line is what this tells us is that this problem is not going to take care of itself over time," said Steven Camarota, a Center for Immigration Studies researcher. "Either we work to reduce the scale of Mexican migration to the United States by seriously enforcing our laws or we accept the fact that millions of people are going to relocate from Mexico to the United States."

The answer is not more border enforcement, said Michele Waslin, head of immigration policy research at the National Council of La Raza, which is pressing for legal residence for illegal immigrants. "We've been adding more resources along the border for years and it hasn't stopped the flow," she said. "I think a more comprehensive approach would take away the incentives to come here illegally both on the sending side and the receiving side."

Pew also polled 1,001 Hispanics living in the United States, finding that views of immigration vary among U.S.-born and foreign-born Latinos, though both groups strongly believe that immigration is a net positive.

Among the findings:

_60 percent of U.S. born-Hispanics favor laws that deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, while that number dips to 29 percent among foreign-born Latinos. "You see these two important parts of the Latino population sort of going in opposite directions," Suro said.

_34 percent of native-born Hispanics believe that illegal immigrants hurt the economy by driving down wages, compared to 15 percent of foreign-born Latinos.

"We see that the basic attitudes towards immigrants today are not unanimous among Latinos," Suro said.

Attitudes about immigration evolve as Hispanics spend more time in the United States, eventually coming closer to those of the overall American population, he said.

The margin of error for the U.S. survey, taken in June, is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. For the Mexican surveys, taken in February and May, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Four out of every 10 Mexican adults would migrate to the United States if they had the means and opportunity to do so, according to a poll released Tuesday.

I realize the reporter has editorial constraints but if I wrote this piece it would read:

Four out of every 10 Mexican adults would INVADE the United States to SPONGE and LEECH .. etc. etc. etc.

Just think the poll isn't including the children that would come with the adults.

Originally Posted by Brian503a

Just think the poll isn't including the children that would come with the adults.

Oh for gosh sakes and the many litters that will be born after the invasion!