A recent national poll released by the Pew Research Center (5-12-10) reported widespread public support of Arizona’s new immigration law — a resounding 73 percent of the survey respondents! Headlines such as these, reinforced by the scientific credibility of an established polling organization, undoubtedly adds more momentum to the call for similar laws in other states.
Is the national mood really that supportive of Arizona’s new immigration law? Not being one to embrace polling results uncritically, I reviewed the study methodology and discovered that the entire survey was conducted in one language: English. Let me explain why this bias seriously limits the usefulness of the poll results.
Having conducted studies of multicultural populations over the past 30 years, I can assure you that two-thirds of Hispanics and 80 percent of Asians prefer to communicate in their native language when provided the choice. When a poll that includes these segments is conducted only in English, the results are predictable: lower response rates, less valid information, and more missing data. More importantly, because these respondents are more likely to be foreign-born, their exclusion from the Pew study has no doubt also inflated the reported level of public support for Arizona’s new law.
One only has to wonder why the Pew Research Center decided to address such a controversial topic in a manner that silenced the very voices that might have shared a different point of view about Arizona’s new immigration law.