Thread: Two-thirds of Californians support guest-worker plan

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 055321.htm

Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006


Illegal immigration gains allies

By Nathaniel Hoffman
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Waiting for a burger Wednesday near Concord's day labor center, where many unauthorized workers seek jobs, Mina Metropoulos considered America's newest immigrant population.

Metropoulos, whose family owns the Monument Boulevard shopping center where Monument Futures sits, said she realizes that the men at the day labor center work hard, are considerate and are trying to make it here in the ways available to them.

"They're seeking what our parents thought was the American Dream," she said.

Her benign view seems to be spreading around the state, according to a poll released today.

Nearly half of Californians now say unauthorized immigrants favorably affect the state, a sentiment that has grown dramatically in the past 12 years, according to the poll.

Last month, the California Field Poll asked 500 Californians about their attitudes toward illegal immigration. While overall approval of the undocumented population splits almost down the middle, the number of people with a favorable view has grown from 26 percent in 1994, the last time the Field Poll asked, to 47 percent now.

"Some of it is economic," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. "There's less of a feeling of a threat that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away."

Some of the change in attitude can also be attributed to high levels of immigration - more poll respondents are now immigrants, DiCamillo said.

Among Latinos and noncitizens, illegal immigration is viewed much more favorably, while a majority of Republicans and white non-Hispanics have more negative opinions, the poll found.

The poll, conducted by telephone in English and Spanish, has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The poll was released the same week that the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the nation's undocumented population at nearly 12 million people, including large numbers who arrived in the past five years.

The poll results did not resonate with some Concord residents interviewed Wednesday.

"I'm not against the people themselves," said Keri Mallon of Concord. "I understand their plight in wanting to come to this country, but I am concerned that American citizens don't receive that same free medical and public benefits as illegal immigrants."

Leslie Bolin, who was picking up boxes at a moving truck rental store on Monument Boulevard, said illegal immigration has driven her from her neighborhood.

"I don't like them bugging me as I go into different places," she said. As she spoke, a half-dozen immigrant workers waited at the gate for jobs helping people move. "I'd rather have them where they belong; I'm sorry about that."

Activists on both sides of the debate blamed the media for irresponsibly shaping public opinion.

"I think this is due to the fact that the media -- I have to blame the media -- have not shown the factual impacts of illegal immigration," said Yeh Ling-Ling, an Orindan and director of the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, which advocates limiting immigration.

"If Californians were told all these devastating facts, I am very confident that the vast majority of Californians would want drastic reductions in illegal immigration."

Immigrant advocates also blame the media, particularly AM talk radio for fanning the anti-immigrant flames.

"Some of the media coverage, particularly if you look at some of the radio talk shows and some of the television coverage, it's been quite negative," said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative.

The Field Poll also found that a large majority - 65 percent - of Californians support a temporary worker program; and an increasing number, 44 percent, approve of driver's licenses for undocumented workers.

"Immigrants are more integrated than we realize," said state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, a leader in the fight for driver's licenses. "I think that the anti-immigrant lobby, while very shrill and very well-organized, does not reflect the sentiments of the people of California and the American people."

When the day labor center on Monument Boulevard opened a few years ago, program manager Jorge Vallejo said very few women came in to hire the workers.

Now, half of the clients that come into the Monument Futures center looking for painters, landscapers, movers, masons and plumbers are women, and they are increasingly comfortable around the all-male work force.

"I can see the changes at the center," Vallejo said. "How that translates into the street I don't know."

Bernardino Juarez, a recently arrived immigrant from Mexico City has gone to the center for the past 15 days waiting for work. He wants to make enough money to study a trade in the United States.

"If the government made it possible for us to get papers, we would do it with pleasure," he said in Spanish. "I have documents, but they are from God."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nathaniel Hoffman covers immigration and demographics. Reach him at 925-943-8345 or nhoffman@cctimes.com.

Last month, the California Field Poll asked 500 Californians about their attitudes toward illegal immigration. While overall approval of the undocumented population splits almost down the middle, the number of people with a favorable view has grown from 26 percent in 1994, the last time the Field Poll asked, to 47 percent now.

Wonder why?

California Field Poll asked 500 Californians about their attitudes toward illegal immigration

499 of them WERE illegal immigrants

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... HL04P1.DTL

FIELD POLL
Two-thirds of Californians support guest-worker plan
Jobs diminishing issue in illegal immigration
- Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006

Californians continue to be concerned about illegal immigration, but few are worried that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away, and a broad majority supports a temporary-guest-worker program -- akin to proposals currently being debated in the U.S. Senate -- that could bring many of the state's 2.5 million unauthorized residents out of the shadows, according to a new Field Poll.

Though nearly 3 out of 4 Californians said they are concerned about illegal immigration, the percentage of those expressing concern has declined over the past 10 years, said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo.

At the same time, 7 in 10 Californians think illegal immigrants are doing jobs that other residents don't want, while 22 percent see them as taking jobs away from citizens and legal residents, the survey found.

DiCamillo noted that the findings come at a time when the state's unemployment rate is less than 5 percent. In 1982, by contrast, when the state was struggling with a recession, more than half of Californians thought illegal immigrants were taking away jobs. In 1994, 34 percent thought so.

"The level of concern has declined, especially compared to a decade ago," said DiCamillo. "And the concern about the loss of jobs, we are definitely correlating to the unemployment rate."

Two-thirds of Californians support a guest-worker plan, the poll found. Among registered voters, the majority was slightly smaller, at 60 percent, while among those not registered to vote -- half of whom are noncitizens -- support for the plan was higher, at 73 percent.

"Support of a guest-worker program is a significant finding," said DiCamillo. "Republicans and Democrats, voters and nonvoters are all in favor of a guest-worker program."

Though President Bush advanced the notion of a temporary-worker program more than two years ago, the idea is only now getting a hearing in the Senate. A competing immigration-reform bill that would criminalize illegal immigrants passed the House in December with no guest-worker provision.

"Californians recognize that undocumented immigrants -- while a very small proportion of the workforce -- are doing very important jobs," said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative, a statewide immigrant rights group. "We need to be knocking on Congress' door and saying, 'You need to address this.' "

Jim Gilchrist, a founder of the Minuteman border militia, said that in contrast to the survey findings, public concern about illegal immigration is getting stronger and that voters actually oppose a guest-worker program.

"They are not given the facts," he said of the 500 respondents to the Field telephone survey conducted in English and Spanish Feb. 12-26.

"If you rephrase the question, such as, 'Do you promote a system that will systematically destroy and pulverize our middle class, that will eliminate every labor union and will increase the amount of tax burden that you and your posterity will have to pay in future generations?' you will get an astounding and a staggering 'No.' "

The poll also found that a majority of Californians continue to oppose giving driver's licenses to undocumented workers, although nonvoters now favor the idea. DiCamillo noted that that represents just one example of an increasing divide in public opinion in the state between registered voters and nonvoters (including noncitizens) on illegal immigration.

"How much weight should you attach to the opinions of those who are not part of the (electoral) process is a question for opinion makers?" he asked. "But (noncitizens) are certainly residing here, they're on the roads, they're in the hospitals and schools -- they're part of the state."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com.


Field poll / Illegal immigration

Concern about the issue of illegal immigration

All adults
'96 '06
Extremely concerned 53% 43%
Somewhat concerned 32% 30%
Not concerned 12% 26%
No opinion 3% 1%


White Latino Other
Extremely concerned 42% 49% 35%
Somewhat concerned 34% 25% 29%
Not concerned 23% 26% 36%
No opinion 1%

*Latino and Other totals were less than " of 1%.

Create temporary-worker programs for illegal immigrants that would
legalize their status and allow future immigrants to work in the U.S.

All adults

Favor 65%
Oppose 27%
No opinion 8%

White Latino Other
Favor 59% 81% 57%
Oppose 30% 15% 37%
No opinion 11% 4% 6%

Survey was based on a random sample of 500 California adults conducted
Feb. 12-26, 2006, in English and Spanish. There is a statistical error of 4.5
percentage points.
Source: Field Poll
The Chronicle

I can't quite figure out how 500 people constitutes 2/3 of Californians in a state that big both in land mass and population but who am I to dispute a "field poll?" What IS a Field Poll?

Waiting for a burger Wednesday near Concord's day labor center, where many unauthorized workers seek jobs, Mina Metropoulos considered America's newest immigrant population.

Metropoulos, whose family owns the Monument Boulevard shopping center where Monument Futures sits, said she realizes that the men at the day labor center work hard, are considerate and are trying to make it here in the ways available to them.

"They're seeking what our parents thought was the American Dream," she said.

Next!

I can't read this article any further.

http://www.americanpatrol.com

Whose Opinion Is It, Anyway?

By Walter Moore - Mayor4u.com

March 10, 2006

Is support for illegal immigration growing in California?

According to the headline in today's L.A. Times, a "Poll Shows More Support For Illegal Immigrants." The sub-heading backs this up with "Survey reports 47% of Californians believe such residents have a 'favorable impact.'"

But whose opinion is it, anyway? Who are the "Californians" who expressed such a favorable view illegal immigration?

The authors of the Field Poll state, "The findings in this report are based on a random sample survey of 500 California adults age 18 or older conducted by telephone February 12-26, 2006 in English and Spanish. The sample included 337 registered voters and 163 who were not registered."

Hello?! The survey was conducted "in English and Spanish?" Now why would you need to do that, unless, let's say, a good chunk of the 500 people were, say, living in this country yet, for some inexplicable reason, unable to communicate in English?

The poll report does not state how many of the 500 people took the poll in Spanish.

The poll does, however, distinguish the opinions of registered voters from others. Those results paint a different picture than does the headline of the L.A. Times story:

Among registered voters, 71% are concerned about illegal immigration, and 43% say they are "extremely concerned." Furthermore, 57% of registered voters believe the overall effect of illegal immigration is negative. Sixty-two percent of registered voters oppose giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

So the next time you hear about this -- or any other poll -- remember to ask, "Whose opinion is it, anyway?" In a state inundated by illegal aliens, when a poll is conducted in Spanish, we have to wonder how many of the people expressing support for illegal immigration are themselves illegal aliens.

500 people out of the entire state of CA, you say? I say whoop-de-doo! I guess they don't realize that is a pretty sorry sampling from a state with how many million people?

I believe this field poll is accurate for California. Native Californians are fleeing in droves and illegal aliens have taken over. Whoever has the most people in a particular area controls it. Illegal aliens have already gained control of the state.

I think the "indications" as to WHY 2/3 of Californians want a guest worker program are QUITE CLEAR on this

I don't think anyone should waste their time looking into the REASONS for the results of this poll.