What shapes Americans’ views of migrants from the border and southern states arriving in their cities? It’s not always where they live, but it can depend on their politics.
Democrats, including those in cities and suburbs, are overwhelmingly receptive to the idea of temporarily accepting migrants into their places.
But principle often collides with practicality: they are not always sure there is room.
The number of Americans who think there is room in their city, in the form of amenities or public housing, is less than the number willing to accept people.
Among the democrats who live in the cities, specifically, this gap between the will and the perceived space persists.
Republicans, on the other hand, are mostly opposed to accepting migrants, and think there is no room, no matter where they live.
Who are the inhabitants of the city who would not approve of their locality, at least temporarily, to accommodate migrants?
They tend to think that there is no space; they are usually bigger; more likely to be white than those who favor it; they are paying slightly more attention to migrant and border history and, related to partisanship, are much more likely to be moderates or conservatives than liberals.
Republicans in suburbs and cities are less likely than Democrats to say their city has facilities for migrants. And more generally, they tend to claim that their district is “too crowded” with more people than they can handle already, more so than Democrats. Therefore, all of these assessments may be due in part to more micro-level locational differences, but also to more subjective issues of perception.
Opinions on sending migrants north
Overall, Americans were divided on the idea of sending migrants to northern cities from southern and border cities.
While migrant relocation has been spurred by some red-state governors, Republicans are not universally behind the policy. Opposing Republicans are more opposed to immigration in general, so they may be responding to the idea of migrants being elsewhere or anywhere in the country.
Those who approve of the policy see merit in involving other parts of the country and think those places have more resources, while those who disapprove see it as more of a political statement than anything else.
The border and the administration
A growing majority of Americans are calling for the Biden administration to be tougher on immigrants trying to cross the border, including a significant 41% of Democrats, and the number of Democrats has increased since February.
The president’s handling of the border situation receives generally negative approval. Republicans in Congress are not spared the wrath of the public either. And there is a lot of dissatisfaction in the ranks of each party.
Americans tend to think the situation at the border is at least very serious, if not a crisis, with partisan differences over how serious it is.
It is the Democrats who see the border situation most dire who are calling for Mr. Biden to be tougher, and who tend to be more moderate than liberal.
Biden gets a relatively better approval rating for managing jobs, rather than managing the economy overall, and his overall approval rating is 41%, unchanged from last month and more generally where it has been for many months.
This CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,188 adult US residents interviewed between May 17 and 19, 2023. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race and education according to the US Census’ American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as past voting. The margin of error is ±3.0 points.
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