Editor's note: Daily through Jan. 25, ADN will publish poll results showing how Alaskans feel about topics ranging from the Affordable Care Act and President-elect Donald Trump's transition to crime and the opioid crisis.
America may be a nation of immigrants, but Alaska isn't supporting an influx of immigrants from Syria, according to a recent public opinion poll conducted on behalf of Alaska Dispatch News. Since the civil war began in their country in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed, according to reliable organizations, and millions have been displaced.
But Ivan Moore's Alaska Survey Research poll, which reached 750 Alaskans last month by telephone, found that statewide, 51.2 percent of respondents opposed the idea of Alaska receiving Syrian refugees, 40 percent were in favor, and 8.8 percent weren't sure.
Only in the Fairbanks area did a majority of people accept the notion of Syrian immigration — narrowly, at 51.1 percent. In Anchorage, one of the country's most diverse cities, respondents opposed accepting Syrian refugees, 50.3 percent to 41.5 percent.
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When considered by political ideology, self-reported conservatives opposed Syrian immigration by a wide majority, 72 percent to 18.6 percent. Progressives were the opposite, 73 percent in favor, 18.2 percent opposed. Moderates reflected the statewide total, 51.4 percent opposed to 40.4 percent in favor.
See the full set of questions and cross tabs for this survey question here. The poll was conducted as part of the quarterly Alaska Survey.
The Alaska Survey is a statewide public opinion survey project consisting of 750 interviews with randomly selected Alaskans aged 18+. 500 interviews are conducted on cellphones, 250 on landlines. With the exception of rural Alaska, all numbers for this study are generated randomly onto the set of active Alaska telephone prefixes, with no calling done to lists or phone book records. Survey completions are apportioned appropriately by geographic area in Alaska, and collected data is weighted to make the sample representative of the Alaska population by gender, ethnicity and age, according to latest Census estimates, and also by land/cell phone status. The full sample of 750 (MOE +3.6%) contains a subsample of 624 registered voters (MOE +3.9%).
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