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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2006 
Poll: Mexicans Believe Immigrants in U.S. Doing Necessary Work
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
| | A protester, background, carrying a 'No Amnesty For Illegals' placard, passes a group of pro immigrant protesters on the way to a rally in front of the state Capitol in Atlanta Monday, April 17, 2006. A group supporting legislation to put restrictions on immigration and immigrants held a rally in front of the Capitol. Some counter protestors gathered nearby. (AP/Ric Feld) |
Mexico City - Mexicans are following the U.S. debate over illegal immigration very closely, and most believe that immigrants in the United States are doing necessary work and should not be punished for it, a new poll shows.
A vast majority of Mexicans - 79 percent - support provisions of a U.S. Senate bill that would allow millions of undocumented workers to become temporary legal residents. Fifty percent of respondents said they were familiar with basic elements of the bill, such as legalizing the status of some immigrants and granting temporary-worker status to others.
"Most Mexicans know someone who has gone to the United States, or someone who receives money from someone over there or someone who is thinking about going themselves," said pollster Carlos Ordonez, explaining the widespread interest in the issue in Mexico. "Seeing the marches of immigrants in the United States in Mexican media has also had a huge impact here."
Likewise, hearing strong words from opponents of illegal immigration and seeing some of them burning the Mexican flag has polarized Mexicans, who want to defend immigrants against what they see as racist attitudes, said Ordonez, coordinator of the poll for The Dallas Morning News, Al Dia and the Mexico City newspaper El Universal.
The poll, when compared with a similar one done in the United States a week earlier, shows that Mexicans are far less divided than Americans in believing that immigrants are doing necessary work.
"It is, in part, ignorance. Americans can't appreciate that they really do need labor from other countries and from Mexicans," said Juan Antonio Arizmendi, a 47-year-old accountant from Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, who took part in The News/Al Dia/El Universal poll.
That poll shows 76 percent of Mexicans think that crossing into the United States illegally should not be a crime at all.
The earlier U.S. poll by the Associated Press shows that Americans are split evenly on whether it should be "a serious criminal offense" or a "minor offense."
The AP poll showed that 56 percent of Americans favor offering some kind of legal status for illegal workers, not just from Mexico, but from all over the world.
Where the two countries come closest on the issue is the general belief that border walls are not going to stop Mexicans from crossing illegally into the United States. In Mexico, 89 percent of those polled said border fences would not stop undocumented immigrants, while in the United States two-thirds of Americans hold that view.
"They already built some of the border wall, and it has made no impact all. Water will always find a course," said Ordonez, reciting a common Spanish-language expression.
The polling unit of El Universal conducted 1,500 in-person interviews with registered voters April 5-8 for the national poll. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
In The News/Al Dia/El Universal poll, the largest segment of respondents - 43 percent - cited racism as the chief reason for opposition to illegal immigration. Sixteen percent said Americans see the issue as one of law enforcement, and 14 percent think Americans are fearful of being overrun by foreign cultures.
"Yes, it's true about racism," said Gloria Vazquez Solache, 59, a Mexico City resident who was among those polled.
"They humiliate our countrymen and even burn Mexican flags. Fear of a `foreign culture' is nonsense. There are foreigners there just as there are here. Are we going to run off the Americans who live in Mexico? We have to be brothers and not have racism."
Supporters of a tough House bill that would make it a felony to be in the country illegally have denied assertions that they are motivated by racism and maintain that their goal is effective enforcement of the border and the country's laws.
Daniel Lund, head of another Mexico City-based polling firm, MUND Americas, said the U.S. immigration debate has ignited powerful feelings in Mexico, as only a few bilateral issues have.
"It's one of those rare moments when Mexicans are extremely attentive to what is going on in the United States," said Lund, who has done polling among immigrants. "I think the perception among Mexicans - that opposition to illegal immigration is more of a social issue than an economic issue - is good insight into American society."
With Mexico in the midst of a close presidential campaign that culminates on July 2 with the election, the immigration issue currently favors the front-runner, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, according to the News/Al Dia/El Universal poll.
In the poll, 22 percent of those surveyed said Lopez Obrador would do the best job making the changes that Mexico needs in order to keep potential immigrants home.
Eighteen percent said the candidate of the current ruling National Action Party, Felipe Calderon, would do the best job stemming illegal immigration to the United States. And 15 percent said Roberto Madrazo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, would be the best at that task.
Ordonez said there were basically two reasons that Lopez Obrador is perceived as being the best candidate on immigration. The first is that he is the front-runner, and therefore most potential voters view him more favorably on a variety of issues, or they wouldn't be supporting him in the first place.
In addition, he said, Lopez Obrador has campaigned on helping the poorest of Mexicans and speaks more like a common man than his counterparts. He even has an accent from southern Mexico, the poorest part of the country.
"He has a way of speaking that is closer to the people," said Ordonez. "He comes from the (political) left, and there is the perception that he would do more for those who are the ones who leave."
According to the new poll, Mexicans feel overwhelmingly that illegal migrants risk their lives crossing desert and mountain areas simply because there is a lack of economic opportunity at home.
Seventy-percent of those polled said that a lack of jobs was the primary motivation for illegal immigration to the United States. Twenty-two percent said immigrants wanted to "improve their standard of living through better salaries and opportunities."
A recent Pew Hispanic Center poll in the United States found that most Mexican immigrants had jobs back home before they left, contradicting the conventional wisdom that most are unemployed.
Ordonez said that finding does not conflict with his poll. A lack of jobs and a lack of decent jobs are essentially the same thing to people who are making only a few dollars a day, he said.
"It's not just the lack of jobs, but imagine what kind of jobs there are in a country which lacks employment in the first place," he said.
In a nationwide poll of registered voters in Mexico, conducted for The Dallas Morning News, Al Dia and the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, respondents expressed strong views on immigration:
• 89 percent say border fences would not stop illegal immigration.
• 79 percent support provisions of a Senate bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to seek a temporary work permit.
• 76 percent say that crossing illegally into the United States should not be a crime.
• 43 percent say racism is the chief reason for U.S. opposition to illegal immigration.
El Universal's polling unit conducted 1,500 interviews with registered voters April 5-8. Margin of error: plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
A new poll shows little change in support for Mexico's leading presidential candidates. The election is July 2.
• 38 percent: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, down from 39 percent in February
• 34 percent: Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party, or PAN, unchanged from February poll
• 25 percent: Roberto Madrazo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, unchanged from February poll
The Mexico City newspaper El Universal's polling unit interviewed 1,500 likely voters April 5-8. Margin of error: plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. |
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