2008 National Survey of Latinos: Hispanics see their situation in U.S. deteriorating.

Half (50%) of all Latinos say that the situation of Latinos in this country is worse now than it was a year ago, according to a new nationwide survey of 2,015 Hispanic adults conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

This pessimism is especially prevalent among immigrants, who account for 54% of all Hispanic adults in the United States. Fully 63% of these Latino immigrants say that the situation of Latinos has worsened over the past year. In 2007, just 42% of all adult Hispanic immigrants–and just 33% of all Hispanic adults–said the same thing.

These increasingly downbeat assessments come at a time when the Hispanic community in this country–numbering approximately 46 million, or 15.4% of the total U.S. civilian non-institutional population–has been hit hard by rising unemployment (Kochhar 2008) and stepped-up immigration enforcement.

In the survey, nearly one-in-ten Hispanic adults–native-born U.S. citizens (8%) and immigrants (10%) alike–report that in the past year the police or other authorities have stopped them and asked them about their immigration status.

Some Latinos are experiencing other difficulties because of their ethnicity. One-in-seven (15%) say that they have had trouble in the past year finding or keeping a job because they are Latino. One-in-ten (10%) report the same about finding or keeping housing.

On the question of immigration enforcement, Latinos disapprove of all five enforcement measures asked about in this survey–and generally do so by lopsided margins.

More than four-in-five Hispanics (81%) say that immigration enforcement should be left mainly to the federal authorities rather than the local police; 76% disapprove of workplace raids; 73% disapprove of the criminal prosecution of undocumented immigrants who are working without authorization; and 70% disapprove of the criminal prosecution of employers who hire undocumented immigrants. A narrow majority (53%) disapproves of a requirement that employers check a federal database to verify the legal immigration status of all prospective hires.

The survey finds that a majority of Latinos worry about deportation. Some 40% say they worry a lot and an additional 17% say they worry some that they themselves, a family member or a close friend may be deported. This is up slightly from 2007, when 53% of Latino adults said that they worried a lot or some about deportation (Pew Hispanic Center 2007).

Not surprisingly, worries about deportation and perceptions of discrimination in jobs or housing because of Hispanic ethnicity correlate with the view that Latinos’ situation has worsened in the past year. Two-thirds (68%) of Latinos who worry a lot that they or someone close to them may be deported say that Latinos’ situation in the country today is worse than it was a year ago, as do 63% of Latinos who have experienced job difficulties because of their ethnicity and 71% of Latinos who report housing difficulties because of their ethnicity.

by Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director, Pew Hispanic Center, and Susan Minushkin, Deputy Director, Pew Hispanic Center
Report Materials

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Pew Hispanic Center. 2007 National Survey of Latinos: As Illegal Immigration Issue Heats Up, Hispanics Feel a Chill. Washington, DC, December 2007.

Suro, Roberto and G. Escobar. 2006 National Survey of Latinos: The Immigration Debate. Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, DC, July 2006.

Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation. Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation 2002 National Survey Of Latinos. Washington, DC, December 2002.