Sixty-five percent of Americans believe it is a good thing for immigrants to assimilate into American culture, and just 16 percent reject assimilation, according to a poll announced June 5 by ScottRasmussen.com.
But 70 percent of Democrats — and 85 percent of liberals — believe it is good for immigrants to “influence” Americans’ mainstream culture, says the May 27-20 poll of 1,200 registered voters.
Overall, the poll shows a widespread public rejection of the progressives’ demand for diversity and identity politics that helps them fragment the common culture that ordinary Americans have evolved to help them rule their own society.
That is good news, Rob Law, the director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart News on June 9. He continued:
A national identity and shared values are what makes the United States such an exceptional place … That’s exactly what liberals hate — what they’re trying to do is dilute the [political and cultural] power of Americans by bringing in mass levels of immigration.
“The corporate elites and liberals who just don’t believe in borders [try] to divide [the culture of the nation] and fracture it,” he added.
For example, many progressives still push the 1950s claim that the United States is a “Nation of Immigrants,” not a nation of Americans with their own evolved culture.
Overall, the ScottRasmussen poll shows a widespread public rejection of the progressives’ demand for diversity and identity politics that helps progressive fragment the common culture that ordinary Americans have evolved to help them rule their own society.
For example, 68 percent of whites, 70 percent of Hispanics — but just 50 percent of blacks — said it is “a good thing” for new arrivals to assimilate into the common culture.
The Scott Rasmussen poll used an introduction and three questions to tease out Americans’ tangled views on immigration and culture.
The initial statement said:
America has at times been referred to as a Melting Pot, a place where immigrants and new ethnic groups assimilate into our nation’s mainstream culture. As part of the process, American culture is influenced by the cultural traditions of the new immigrants.
The first question asked: “Is it fair to describe the United States as a Melting Pot today?” The question split 58 percent yes to 21 percent no.
But the multiple possible interpretations of the question blurred partisan differences. So, for example, the GOP respondents split 54 percent yes to 24 percent no, while Democrats answered similarly, at 67 percent yes to 16 percent no.
The next question asked: “Generally speaking, is it a good thing for immigrants and new ethnic groups to assimilate into American culture?”
The overall result was 65 percent yes, 16 percent no, with 19 percent not sure.
Partisan differences were minor — GOP respondents split percent 66 yes to 17 percent no, while Democrats answered 70 percent yes to 13 percent no.
That seems like a clear answer — but it turns out that many liberals prefer immigrants to assimilate so they can change Americans’ culture. So the third question asked: “Okay … is it a good thing for American culture to be influenced by the cultural traditions of new immigrants?”
Democrats answered 70 percent yes to 15 percent no.
Just 43 percent of GOP respondents approved influence, while 39 percent disapproved of influence.
Overall, the respondents answered 56 percent yes, and 25 percent no.
The poll could not ask respondents to say if they preferred a little or a lot of influence from immigrants. For example, few Americans denounce Italian-style pizza, but very many reject Islamic polygamy or the widespread use of foreign languages.
But a plurality of “very conservative” respondents showed they oppose immigrant influence on American culture. This nationalist-minded group split 46 percent no and 41 percent yes.
In contrast, very liberal respondents were eager for migrants to influence Americans’ culture, with seven percent answering “no” and 85 percent answering “yes.”
The poll’s questions about a “good thing” are useful, in part, because other polls simply ask if respondents believe migrants are assimilating.
For example, an October 2919 Associated Press-NORC poll said 54 percent of U.S. voters said immigrants are not adopting American culture but are keeping their foreign cultures. Breitbart News reported:
A slim majority of 51 percent of voters say the U.S. should be a nation with a national culture and national identity, rather than adopting a multicultural approach. White voters are the only racial demographic group to say, by a majority, that the U.S. must have a national culture.
Many progressives push the Cold War claim that Americans’ homeland is a “Nation of Immigrants.”
This claim is contradicted by many years of polling by a wide variety of pollsters, which show deep, non-partisan, and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.
This opposition is multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan, rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity Americans owe to each other.
Migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to investors, from technology to stoop labor, from red states to blue states, and from the central states to the coastal states such as New York.
The voter opposition to elite-backed economic migration coexists with support for legal immigrants and some sympathy for illegal migrants. But only a minority of Americans — mostly leftists — embrace the many skewed polls pushing the 1950’s corporate “Nation of Immigrants” claim.
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