Most U.S. voters say immigrants – no matter their legal status – mostly take jobs citizens don’t want
Majorities of U.S. registered voters say immigrants – both undocumented and legal – mostly fill jobs American citizens don’t want, as opposed to jobs citizens would like to have.
Three-quarters of voters say undocumented immigrants fill jobs citizens don’t want, while a lower share (61%) say the same of legal immigrants, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August 2024.
The impact of immigration on the U.S. job market has come up regularly in the 2024 presidential election. Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent Donald Trump have points of agreement and disagreement on this issue.
Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine registered voters’ views of the impact of immigration on the U.S. job market ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
This analysis is based on a survey of 9,201 adults – including 7,569 registered voters – conducted from Aug. 5 to 11, 2024. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
