CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)
conducts research on the civic and political engagement of young Americans.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

Immigration and the 2012 Election

February 21st, 2013
Tweet
Share
Email to a Friend

A new CIRCLE fact sheet uses post-election youth polling to examine young people’s views of immigration reform and how youth with recent immigrant backgrounds participated in the 2012 election.

Only a relatively small portion of young Americans rated immigration as their top issue in the 2012 election, yet those young people overwhelmingly favored creating paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. In addition, young immigrants and youth with at least one parent born in another country make up a significant portion of the youth population in the U.S. Fifty-six percent of this group report voting in the 2012 election, with 76% supporting President Obama and 20% Governor Romney.

This new CIRCLE fact sheet is drawn from data included in a post-election survey commissioned by the group consisting of 4,483 young Americans, ages 18-24. The telephone survey, conducted in Spanish and English, began the day after the 2012 election and included oversamples of African American and Latino youth (but data for the full sample was weighted to be proportional to the current youth population). The toplines from the survey were released earlier this year.

4 Responses to “Immigration and the 2012 Election”

  1. erin Says:

    is this data set available on this site? i would like to use it for a class project in my grad stats class…

  2. CIRCLE Says:

    Hi Erin,

    We have the toplines available on our website: http://archive.civicyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/YEF-Fall-2012-W2-W1-common-variables-toplines_PUBLIC.pdf

    If you are looking for the raw data please email me at surbhi.godsay@tufts.edu.

    Thanks!

  3. youth opinions of immigration policy « Peter Levine Says:

    […] of immigration policy Posted on February 27, 2013 by Peter (from an airplane) Last week, CIRCLE released our analysis of young people’s views of the immigration debate. The headline was not surprising. Only 8% […]

  4. AEI Citizenship – Immigration and the 2012 election Says:

    […] Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) has just joined the conversation, releasing a new fact sheet that uses post-election youth polling to examine young people’s views of immigration. The […]