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Immigration 2009 Part One


Part One: The Right Move

Overall, immigrants say they’re quite satisfied with life in the United States, for themselves and their children. Discrimination against immigrants doesn't seem to be part of their daily lives. Although majorities say it exists, majorities also say they haven't personally experienced much of it. Right now, the biggest concern for immigrants is much the same as for native-born Americans: the economy and their own financial well-being. The economic tumult in our society may be shaping some of their perceptions — and motivations.

For any decision in life, whether it involves a job accepted or lost, a marriage made or ended, a school selected, or a vote cast, the evaluation comes down to one question: Would you do it all over again? There may be regrets or dissatisfactions; that’s part of the human condition. But if life came with a time machine or a reset button, would you make the same choice?

By that standard, immigrants in America are clearly happy with their choice. More than 7 in 10 (71 percent) report that if they could do it all over again, they’d still come to the United States. Nor are they likely to give up and go home; indeed, equally large numbers (70 percent) say that they intend to make the United States their permanent home.

That goes for their children, as well. About three-quarters of immigrant parents (74 percent) say it’s unlikely their children will want to live in their birth country, with a strong 58 percent saying it’s “very unlikely.”

The reasons for this seem straightforward: Immigrants buy in to American society. There’s always been a fierce debate among pundits and political scientists about “American exceptionalism,” the idea that the United States is unique among nations. Some find this idea ennobling, others pernicious. Maybe it’s no surprise, since immigrants have volunteered to build their lives here, but the people we surveyed have very little doubt: 76 percent say the United States is “a unique country that stands for something special in the world.” Only 20 percent disagree, saying that the United States is “just another country that is no better or worse than any other.”

When asked to make specific comparisons about the United States and their home country, the United States comes out far ahead on many of the fundamentals of daily life: things native-born Americans may take for granted. Strong majorities say that the United States does a better job than their home country when it comes to:

  • Offering the opportunity to earn a good living (88 percent)1

  • Having a trustworthy legal system (70 percent)

  • Making good health care available (67percent)

  • Maintaining a good education system (62 percent).

In fact, three-quarters of immigrant parents of school-age children say their child is getting a better education in the United States than they themselves received at that same age.

Smaller majorities also give the United States an edge in areas like "being a good place to raise children" and "having a free and independent media" (both 55 percent).




Immigrants believe discrimination is commonplace, but the numbers seem stable and most say it happens to "the other guy."


The history of immigration in the United States shows that the idea of an open door and a cold reception are not incompatible in the public’s view. There’s often been discrimination against people based on their race and ethnicity, whether they were born in the United States or not.

That said, although our survey finds that immigrants recognize discrimination in the American experience, it isn’t necessarily a substantial part of their personal experience.

More than 6 in 10 immigrants (63 percent) say there’s some discrimination against immigrants in the United States today. One in five (22 percent) say there’s “a great deal” of discrimination. Fewer, 43 percent, say there’s at least some discrimination against people from their birth country (15 percent say “a great deal”).

However, only 9 percent of immigrants say that they have personally experienced “a great deal” of discrimination, with another 16 percent reporting that they experienced "some." That means 73 percent of immigrants say they’ve experience "only a little" (35 percent) or no discrimination (38 percent). The number of those who have personally experienced "a great deal" or "some" discrimination does not vary by immigration status, religion, level of English-language ability or country of origin.

In addition, there doesn’t seem to be any increase in personal experience of discrimination since our 2002 survey. In fact, there's even a slight but statistically significant downward shift between the number of immigrants who said they have personally experienced discrimination in 2002 (7 percent said a great deal and 23 percent said some) and those who say as much in the current survey (9 percent said a great deal and 16 percent said some).

Of the 51 percent of immigrants who have been here longer than five years and say they have experienced discrimination, more than half also also say they have experienced the same level (37 percent) or more discrimination (17 percent) in the past five years; 44 percent say that they have experienced less.

Only 5 percent of those who have been in the United States for at least five years say that in those past five years they have been stopped by the police and asked about their immigration status.

The government's immigration services get better marks than they did seven years ago.

While comprehensive immigration reform has eluded policymakers, there have been significant changes in how the government approaches immigration law. Since we first surveyed immigrants in 2002, the federal government split the old Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies, to separate processing visas and citizenship applications from enforcement of immigration laws. Federal officials also became more aggressive in enforcing immigration laws after September 11, hiring more agents and making enough new detentions to create substantial backlogs in immigration courts. [2]

When it comes to their dealings with the government, nearly half of the immigrants (47 percent) we spoke with have had contact with “U.S. immigration services” in the past 10 years. Some 15 percent say that they had contact within the past year. [3]

Overall, federal immigration officials get better ratings from immigrants than did their counterparts in 2002. We saw a 10-point rise in the number of people giving positive ratings (from 48 percent to 58 percent). Nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) of current immigrants who recently dealt with immigration services say that it is easy to get information, and 21 percent say it’s “very easy.”

Immigrants who are not citizens but are legal residents gave government immigration services about the same positive ratings as citizens. Undocumented immigrants were slightly more ambivalent about their experiences overall, but a majority gave positive or neutral ratings.



There is a drop in overall satisfaction among immigrants with life in the United States, and the state of the economy may be driving it.

The global financial crisis, vast in scope and frightening in speed, has overwhelmed other public concerns in surveys over the past year. In this area, immigrants are no different from other Americans. In our survey, 6 in 10 (63 percent) immigrants volunteer the economy as the most important problem facing the nation, far ahead of any other issue. Other sources prove this point as well. Mexican government statistics show that fewer Mexicans are emigrating to the United States, and the ones already here are sending less money home, both trends Mexican officials attribute to the economy.[4]

The effect of the economy on immigrants’ attitudes in our survey may be apparent in a number of ways. Although strong majorities of immigrants seem content with life in the United States, there is less satisfaction than there was in 2002. Fewer say they’d “do it all over again,” falling from 80 percent in 2002 to 71 percent now. In addition, although an overwhelming 87 percent say they’re happy with life in the United States, there’s been a significant drop in enthusiasm. In 2002, 55 percent said that they were “extremely happy,” compared with only 34 percent now.

To some extent, these numbers match surveys of the general public over the past year, which have found record numbers of Americans saying the country is “on the wrong track."[5] With immigrants, however, there are also shifts in several other areas that suggest economic strains are starting to tell.

In both 2002 and today, strong majorities of immigrants say it’s important to work hard and stay off government assistance. But those numbers have shifted. For example, those who think it is “extremely important” for immigrants to stay off welfare has dropped from 73 percent in 2002 to 63 percent today. There’s also an increase in the number of immigrants who say that qualifying for government programs like Medicaid or food stamps is a major reason for becoming a citizen. Only 36 percent of immigrants say that this is a major reason to pursue citizenship, but this is 14 points higher than when we asked in 2002.

If anything, economic concerns are stronger among more recent and undocumented immigrants. Newer immigrants (those who arrived in 2001 or later) are more likely to cite getting a job (82 percent versus 65 percent) and being eligible for government programs (46 percent versus 31 percent) as major reasons to become citizens. In addition, 86 percent of undocumented immigrants cite the economy as their number one concern (compared with 59 percent of citizens and other legal residents).

At the same time, as you will see in the other findings, other concerns that immigrants might have, including fitting into the American fabric, experiencing discrimination and concerns about their children did not change or have even decreased since 2002.This strongly suggests that the current state of the economy may be the driving force behind the lower levels of satisfaction.

And though the survey found that almost 9 in 10 say the United States was a better place than their birth country for earning a good living, our focus groups did pick up some suggestions that this might change, at least for some immigrants. A number of focus group participants pointed out that the standard of living is rising in other countries, such as China and India, which means that similar opportunities may be opening up there as well.

"Nowadays, for example in China, people make [a] very decent [living]. If you're looking at the relative purchasing power, people in China are pretty comfortable, as they are here. Talking about opportunity-wise, I have a lot of friends who are, relatively speaking, much better off than my friends here."

- A San Francisco participant originally from China

So who are the disenchanted?

So what defines those immigrants who believe that they made the wrong choice by coming to the United States? We tried to find common features among the one-quarter of immigrants surveyed who say they wouldn't come here if they had it to do over again. That includes those who say they would have stayed in their birth country (19 percent) and those who would have immigrated somewhere else (6 percent).

The biggest differences between this group and other immigrants seem to be language and discrimination:

  • Language is by far the biggest difference, though the same number (76 percent) say they came to this country knowing either no or only a little English, 74 percent report that their English is fair or poor (34 percent of them say that it is poor compared with 24 percent among those who came here knowing little or no English and say they would immigrate again).

  • They're significantly more likely to say that there is a "great deal" of discrimination against immigrants (38 percent compared with 17 percent among those who say they'd do it all over again).

  • One in five say that they have personally experienced a "great deal" of discrimination, more than twice the number of the overall sample, and only 6 percent among those who say they'd immigrate again say the same.

  • Most of these regretful immigrants have been in the United States for a substantial period of time. More than half, 56 percent, came to the United States before 2001.

Other potential dividing lines don't seem to make much difference. This isn't a matter of income, religion, or education; this group shows no real differences in these areas when compared to other immigrants.

Nor is it a question of ethnicity or birth country. Some 29 percent, the largest single group, were listed as "other," in other words, not Asian, Middle Eastern, Central or South American, or Mexican. Latin Americans do make up half this group when Mexicans (28 percent) are combined with Central and South Americans (22 percent).

Finally, this group is more likely to be undocumented (27 percent), though that number remains relatively small.

[1] In the survey, respondents were asked specifically about the country in which they were born unless they declined to specify their home country (6 respondents, or 0.5 percent of those surveyed), in which case they were asked to refer to their “home country.” For example, someone from France would be asked the question: “Do you think the United States or France does a better job when it comes it to… having more opportunity to earn a good living?”

[2] “Study Finds Immigration Courtrooms Backlogged,” June 17, 2009,
The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/18immig.html

[3] Our 2002 survey was conducted when immigration enforcement and citizenship applications were both handled by the same agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Our survey questions specifically referred to the INS. Since then, the INS was has split into two agencies: Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Our 2009 survey questions refer to “U.S. immigration services.”

[4] See, for example, "Mexican Data Show Migration to the U.S. in Decline," May 14, 2009, The New York Times, and "Remittances by Mexicans in U.S. Plummet," June 1, 2009, The New York Times.

[5] In a recent CBS News / New York Times Poll, half of Americans said that things in this country have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track, compared with 44 percent who said things are are generally going in the right direction (June 2009).