By Laura Bernheim
Despite evidence to the contrary, many Floridians believe undocumented immigrants are taking job opportunities away from American workers rather than filling jobs that Americans don’t want, according to recent research from the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents to the PIE Center’s online survey thought undocumented immigrants reduce the number of good jobs available to Americans, compared to 42 percent of respondents who said those immigrants are willing to work where citizens are not. The survey defined undocumented immigrants as “foreign nationals residing in the U.S. without legal immigration status…resulting from someone entering the country without permission or remaining in the U.S. after a legal visa expires.”
When PIE Center researchers examined the results by education status, respondents who were employed on a part-time basis or unemployed were more likely to think undocumented immigrants were taking away job opportunities, Director Tracy Irani said.
The opposite, however, seems to be true — based on a recent study, U.S. citizens do not seem to be taking the jobs available in industries that hire high rates of undocumented immigrants.
“Something that was interesting or jumped out to me was that there were some knowledge gaps in the responses people gave,” she said. “Most people in the survey felt that the kinds of jobs that undocumented immigrants do are agricultural jobs and outdoor labor jobs, which would not necessarily be seen as good jobs. There seemed to be a little bit of disconnect between that finding and the finding about reducing the amount of good jobs.”
A recent study about North Carolina agricultural labor found that no matter how bad the economy becomes, local citizens rarely express interest in farm labor and even less frequently finish the growing season.
Of nearly 500,000 unemployed North Carolinians, only 268 applied for 6,500 available farm jobs. Only seven of those residents — 3 percent of hired U.S. workers — completed the growing season. By contrast, about 90 percent of immigrant workers (with H-2A visas) finished the season.
In Florida, about 600,000 undocumented immigrants make up about 6 percent of the state’s workforce, according to the Immigration Policy Center.
These perceptions might reflect media coverage about how many immigrants work in agricultural jobs, Irani said.
“That may be what they see and hear the most about, because there is a lot of news coverage about migrant labor,” she said. “That might be a bit higher and more prominent in their mind in terms of types of jobs immigrants do. Those who are unemployed or underemployed might look at that negatively.”
Researchers collected 507 responses from Florida residents that matched the 2010 census in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age and education to gain an understanding of what residents in Florida think about immigration issues.
The PIE Center will conduct four public opinion trend panels each year that focus on key issues in Florida, such as water quantity and quality, immigration, endangered species and food production. The surveys will repeat annually to track changes in public opinion over time.
