Survey shows most supportive of immigrants

Racial attitudes report
Racial attitudes report

The majority of black, white and Hispanic residents in Pulaski County have “a fairly high level of sympathy and support for immigrants,” including those who are in the country illegally, according to a newly released study.

The survey, which was undertaken last fall by the Survey Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, gauges the attitudes those residents have on issues of race and immigration.

“Issues of race and ethnicity in our community and state are stubborn issues,” UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson said Thursday when the study was released.

“A survey of attitudes is a mirror to a community, and the people of that community can look into that mirror and … can see aspects of themselves that can be categorized as becoming, and they can see aspects of themselves that can be categorized as blemishes,” Anderson said.

According to 2013 data from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Arkansas’ foreign-born population increased by 82 percent between 2000 and 2010, ranking the state fourth in the nation in such population growth.

UALR’s study sought to learn how Pulaski County’s residents felt about their foreign-born neighbors. Race and ethnicity were not specified in the survey questions.

The study broke the county’s survey takers into five categories: Little Rock whites (those within city limits), Little Rock blacks, outside of Little Rock whites, outside of Little Rock blacks, and Hispanics countywide.

A large majority of people in each group said they believe that “immigrants strengthen our state” rather than place a burden on public resources.

A large majority of people in each group said they believe that “immigrants strengthen our state” rather than place a burden on public resources.

Little Rock blacks and whites both expressed a more favorable view than their counterparts outside the city: roughly 75 percent of each category responded that “immigrants strengthen our state,” while 67 percent of blacks and 61 percent of whites outside the city felt that way. Ninety-six percent of Pulaski County Hispanics who were surveyed agreed.

Survey results also showed that roughly 70 percent of blacks and whites in Little Rock think their foreign-born neighbors are changing their communities in positive ways. Only 63 percent of blacks and 57 percent of whites outside the city feel the changes are positive. At 94 percent, the Hispanic category was the most partial to the effect those people were having on their communities.

When asked specifically about people who are in the country illegally, 81 percent of Little Rock blacks and 76 percent of Little Rock whites said “there should be a legal way for them to stay in the country.” In comparison, 76 percent of blacks and 68 percent of whites outside of Little Rock thought those people should be given a legal way to stay. In the Hispanic group, 92 percent agreed.

Several of the questions in the UALR study are based on questions used by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank that provides information on social issues, public opinion and demographic trends.

Surveyors collected the opinions from 2,064 Pulaski County residents in both English and Spanish over landlines and cellphones. Each black and white group contained between 422 and 483 respondents, with a margin of sampling error between 4.5 and 4.7 percent, researchers said. The Hispanic group contained 199 respondents.

White, black and Hispanic respondents were also matched with interviewers of the same race, as “people may express their views differently if they are talking to a white interviewer or talking to a black interviewer,” Bennett said, especially when the topic is about racial attitudes.

The university has conducted an annual survey of racial attitudes in Pulaski County for the past 13 years, according to its website. Each year’s survey has a different focus, such as immigration, crime, education or health care.

Given the divides between respondents inside and outside of Little Rock on the topic of immigration, surveyors concluded that, this year, there is more commonality between geographic groups than there is between racial groups.

“This is the most unifying theme between whites and blacks than we’ve ever had,” said Cindy Lou Bennett, director of the Survey Research Center.

For instance, in a 2004 UALR survey that focused on racial equality issues, it was found that whites were significantly more likely to perceive that blacks and whites are treated equally in their communities.

“Generally, we see that whites living in Little Rock, the urban core, have more interactions with other racial and ethnic groups. These interactions form viewpoints that tend to be more progressive with respect to racial attitudes than the attitudes of whites outside of Little Rock,” she said.

This unification of attitudes between Little Rock’s racial groups comes as no surprise to Mireya Reith. A daughter of a Mexican immigrant, Reith is the executive director of the Springdale-based Arkansas United Community Coalition and is the first Hispanic person appointed to the Arkansas Board of Education.

“There has been nothing more effective in moving attitudes in our state than our children growing up together, and our parents having to work alongside each other,” Reith said. “We see more of that here in Little Rock, in our population concentration, than outside.”

The shift in attitudes among Arkansans has filtered up to the congressional level, Reith said. In 2010 former U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Little Rock, voted against the advancement of the DREAM Act, a proposal to create a pathway to citizenship for people in the country illegally. Three years later, however, Pryor voted the other way on a 2013 immigration bill and cited Arkansans’ “changing attitude” towards immigration-related issues, Reith said.

“We are quickly moving the needle on perceptions of immigrants and immigration reforms in the state, and I think that’s a tremendous success,” she said.

But overall, Arkansas’ elected leadership at the state and federal levels has been slow to reflect the state’s population makeup, Reith said. Arkansas is still the only state in the South to have never elected a black person to Congress. And despite the growing number of Hispanics in Arkansas, none have obtained a seat in the state legislature.

“Until we’re actually putting leaders in place that will reflect our population — that have those different life experiences … That will help elevate policy in Arkansas,” she said.

John Kirk, the director of UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, said surveys such as the one conducted by the school can help open dialogues about immigration policy.

“[The survey] is a useful thing for advocacy groups to use, to take along and have something tangible that has data and numbers that back up what they’re saying,” Kirk said. “Those are the things that policymakers are ultimately influenced by.”

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