Poll: Almost half of Americans now say immigrants help economy

Nearly half of Americans think immigrants help the economy rather than hurt it, according to a new survey.

The Gallup poll out early Thursday finds 49 percent of adults now think immigrants mostly help the economy by providing low-cost labor.

Another 40 percent, however, think immigrants hurt the economy by driving down wages.

{mosads}A majority of Democrats, 59 percent, says immigrants help the economy, but only 28 percent of Republicans agree.

Pollsters also found that 72 percent of U.S. adults think immigrants take jobs Americans don’t want, compared to just 18 percent who say the opposite.

Sixty percent of Americans don’t think immigration has any effect on their own job. A majority, 54 percent, also thinks immigration doesn’t have any effect on the business or organization in which they work.

The poll was conducted from June 7 to 11 among 1,009 adults. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.