ALBANY, N.Y. — On Tuesday, Siena College released its most recent college poll, and it took a dive into the recent influx of migrants we have come to New York State, and how residents have been feeling about it.
New York State residents' feelings overall are pretty negative in that they feel there is no benefit being gained from having migrants here as of recently.
The new poll shows that voters feel like the recent influx is a "serious problem". Many even feel as though having migrants here has been more of a 'burden' than it has been a 'benefit' to us as a state.
"Voters say New Yorkers have already done enough and should now work to slow the flow, rather than accepting new migrants and working to assimilate them into New York," the poll said.
Governor Kathy Hochul was in the Town of Tonawanda on Tuesday and Two On Your Side's Claudine Ewing asked her about the poll on the migrants and DocGo.
"This is an area which came to light several weeks ago about some of their failures, and I know the attorney general. Is looking into this. We are also looking at the contract and finding out what we can do, any areas where they have signed a contract committed to provide certain services and have not, that is something that the state is involved with as well. I am concerned about that and I understand the feelings of people living in our communities. There is a fear of the unknown, what does this mean? Are the numbers going to increase? Can we handle this? That is real for our residents and I want to assure them that we are working very hard so they can have the same right to work that immigrants who came before they had and that perhaps their own grandparents and great-ancestors had to be able to work here because we need those jobs."
These feelings were found to be shared among some parties as well, and not just specific to one group. There is still some divide.
"New Yorkers – including huge majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents, upstaters and downstaters – overwhelmingly say that the recent influx of migrants to New York is a serious problem for the state,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “However, that’s where the partisan agreement ends. A plurality of Democrats says that migrants resettling in New York over the last two decades has been a benefit. But, a majority of independents and two-thirds of Republicans say that migrant resettlement has been a burden to the state.
At this point, it has also been found that more than 3/4 of those who identify with the Republican party feel like enough has been done in regards to the migrant flow, and er now need to work to assimilate those already here to New York. Whereas Democrats are evenly divided on the matter the poll explains.
“By a 50-40% margin, voters support relocating new migrants from temporary New York City housing to permanent housing in communities across the state. It is strongly supported by Democrats and New York City voters, while Republicans are strongly opposed, and independents and non-City voters are closely divided but leaning toward the opposition,” Greenberg said.
Voters from both parties though were found to have been in disapproval of Governor Kathy Hochul's job to address the influx, as well as Mayor Eric Adams' job, and the Presidential Administration.
“By a narrow 42-39% margin, they approve of the job that their local elected officials are doing,” Greenberg said.
The overall feeling among voters is that they would like to "slow the flow" of migrants to NYS at this point in time.
To learn more visit scri.siena.edu
