Poll: Voters Concerned Over Country's Direction and Impact of High Immigration Rates

A new poll by the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Times paints a gloomy picture of how registered voters view the direction of the country and the role of immigrants in their family's financial situation. Among California voters, 63% think the country is headed in the wrong direction. At the national level, this jumps up to 70%. Similar percentages are "mainly worried" about changes in the economy and declining public morals during the past few years.

Only 13% of California voters -- and just 10% of national voters -- think the government in Washington increases opportunities for them. Far more voters believe the growing number of immigrants in their area is making their family's financial position harder (41% in CA and 43% nationally) versus making it easier (18% in CA and 10% nationally). Both genders and all age groups had more voters feeling immigration makes their financial situation harder rather than easier. The concerns over high immigration rates were present among all racial groups. Blacks were most concerned -- 51% thought increasing immigration was harming their family finances compared to only 11% who thought immigrants were making their financial situation easier. The corresponding harder/easier percentages for whites were 44% and 11%. Even far more Hispanics (37%) believe immigration was harming their finances compared to making it easier (21%). Asian voters were evenly split (32% vs. 28%) within the sampling error on this question. Overall, the poll was skewed heavily against Republican representation. Only 21% of California voters who participated in the polling -- and just 26% of national voters -- self-identified with the GOP. The majority of the poll respondents were either Democrats (38% in CA, 32% nationally) or independents (38% both in CA and nationally). Based on well-established high rates of concern over immigration rates and the economy among Republican voters, had the USC/LA Times poll included approximately equal proportions of GOP and Democrat voters, the polling results would have come out even less in favor of the nation's current trajectory and high immigration fluxes.

Sierra Rayne——Bio and Archives

Sierra Rayne holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and writes regularly on environment, energy, and national security topics. He can be found on Twitter at @srayne_ca