The attitude of voters about immigration and jobs is a lot more nuanced than the current election campaign might have you believe.
Just ten years ago, people were about twice as likely to say immigrants to the U.S. were hurting American workers (55 percent) as helping (28 percent). Today, they are almost evenly split (45 percent to 42 percent), according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in association with the Markle Foundation.
Democrats were 28 percentage points more likely to say that immigrants were “helpful” compared to in 2006, followed by those without a high school degree (25 points) and 30-to-49 year-olds (20 points). Republicans, meanwhile, were the only group that became more pessimistic.
