Roberto Suro Quotes (24 Quotes)

There's one very clear finding and that's that unemployment per se is not a very large factor in determining whether people migrate or not. This is not a flow of people without jobs. Unemployment is not pushing people out. . . .

We know that the negative sentiments are more prevalent among the middle-aged rather than the young,

a beginning, middle and an end.

The unknown here is the extent to which someone retains an ethnic identity that influences their choices of entertainment. It's a large enough population that marketers are spreading their bets.

The extremely high (immigration) flows at the end of the past decade were not the norm, nor part of a long-term trend, but rather the peak of a momentary increase that lasted for only a few years.

The desire to migrate is not a phenomenon of the poor and poorly educated, ... The inclination to migrate is powerful in the middle class in Mexico, even those with college educations say they would go to the United States if they could.

Regardless of what happens to immigration flows, there is a huge second generation of Latinos.

Rather than undergoing a continuous increase in immigrant levels as is commonly perceived, the United States experienced a sharp spike in immigration flows over the past decade that had a distinct beginning, middle and end.

There is a big demographic wave of Hispanic kids who are native born who will be turning 18 in even greater numbers over the next three, four and five election cycles.

Among Latinos in the United States, there's a majority that views immigrants favorably, but there is a significant minority concerned about unauthorized immigration into the country and its impact.

You end up, after a point, trying to balance our fundamental traditions, the need for order, law and security with a need for openness. Immigration policy, writ large, has always been partly a matter of national identity. It becomes a values-laden debate. Congress is having a hard time with it.

Right now, we're seeing to some extent the political response to the demography. And even though the legislative proposals are seemingly technical and narrow, they touch these nerves about how we think of ourselves as a people.

The provocation ended up being even more substantial because the thing was actually passed. What that showed is that immigration can be a mobilizing issue for Hispanic voters in a negative sense, that they will respond to a perception that the entire population is being demonized, or that the measures are excessively harsh.

Contrary to what people might expect, the inclination to migrate isn't contained among Mexicans who are poor or poorly educated or with limited economic prospects. They're distributed across the whole breadth of Mexican society.

What we see from the survey is people understood they had the right to vote, they just didn't know how to go about it.

Illegal immigration is an issue of growing concern and even anxiety at the grass roots, ... It's one of those issues where politicians of both parties are trying to catch up with the public.

Those places all tend to be metro areas where the overall population is growing fast and where the economies are vibrant. That kind of rapid economic growth and expansion creates a demand, particularly for recently arrived immigrant workers.

It's by far the biggest public statement on immigration policy on one side or the other that we've ever seen.

I'm afraid I have no way of knowing. I'm not sure what the answer would be.

If all these people that came here are going to stay, then there is a question of what will be the social cost. If they're only here for their working life, it's a bargain.

There's kind of a cosmopolitan feel among these kids, which could end up being something very distinctive. It's a mishmash of stuff, and it's all just sort of thrown together, which is very much what this generation is like a mixture of what they take from their families . . . and purely American kids.

A lot of that is based on the perception of the future potential versus their strength now.

There's a Hispanic middle class, no doubt, but it just doesn't spend as much as other groups. And Oscar De La Hoya is by no means alone, or even early.

This is the most comprehensive public opinion poll ever done. There is not a consensus nationwide about immigration or a consensus about what to do about it.