Perceptions of Immigration Among Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans: Nebraska Rural Poll Research Report 19-2

The percent of Nebraska’s population that is foreign born has steadily increased during the past decade. In fact, its growth in foreign born population since 2010 ranks in the top 10 among all states. Given these changes, are rural Nebraskans aware of recent immigrants in their community? How do they perceive immigrants and their impacts on rural Nebraska? How do they view various immigration policies? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions. This report details 1,776 responses to the 2019 Nebraska Rural Poll, the 24th annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about immigration. Trends for some of the questions are examined by comparing data from the 2006 Rural Poll. In addition, comparisons are made among different respondent subgroups, that is, comparisons by age, occupation, region, etc. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged