APM Survey:
Who should decide where refugees are resettled?
Photo: Rostyslav Savchyn via Unsplash
by APM RESEARCH LAB STAFF | Feb. 21, 2020
Our nonpartisan, nationally representative survey, conducted in collaboration with the new public media initiative America Amplified—Election 2020, asked Americans which level of government (federal, state or local) should decide where refugees are resettled in the U.S.
The survey was conducted Dec. 10 to 15, 2019, a few months after President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13888, which gave states and counties greater say in where refugees were resettled. Shortly after responses for the survey were collected, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order; the Justice Department has since appealed that judge’s ruling.
While more Americans believe the federal government should decide where refugees are resettled, sizable numbers think state and local governments should make those decisions
A plurality of Americans—almost 40%—thinks the federal government should decide where refugees. However, a quarter of Americans think resettlement decisions should lie with state governments while nearly another quarter think they should be made by local governments.
Question: “Now thinking specifically about refugees; that is, those who have fled their home country due to persecution or conflict and were allowed to settle in the U.S. Do you think decisions on where refugees should be resettled should be primarily left up to the federal government, state governments, or local governments?”
Source: APM Survey, December 10-15, 2019. N = 1,003 U.S. adults age 18 or older; overall margin of error is +/-3.5 percentage points.
Interestingly, political affiliation do not track with Americans’ opinions about refugee resettlement. Similar numbers of Democrats and Republicans—43% and 40%, respectively—think the federal government should make resettlement decisions. That parity continues among Democrats and Republicans who think that state or local governments should make resettlement decisions.
PARTNERS FOR THIS SURVEY
The APM Research Lab conducted this survey jointly with America Amplified—Election 2020, public media initiative funded, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Responses were collected by SSRS of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.