A new study on immigration attitudes found that white Americans’ concern over losing economic, political and cultural influence fell between 2024 and 2025, as President Donald Trump moved to reduce migrant inflows.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A new study funded in part by pro-migration sources found that public concern over immigration declined after President Donald Trump returned to office and began curbing migrant inflows, even as the report framed opposition to mass migration through the lens of media influence and “Great Replacement Theory.”
The report, titled “How Fox News viewership increases belief in the anti-immigrant great replacement theory,” said that during President Joe Biden’s administration, 51% of white Americans agreed that they were “losing their economic, political, and cultural influence in this country because of the growing population of immigrants,” according to The Conversation. Roughly 30% disagreed with the statement.
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The report argued that Fox News viewership was associated with greater acceptance of the theory, saying, “Simply put, the more Fox News programming that a white American watches, the more likely they are to adopt the conspiracy theory.”
“The great replacement theory is no longer purely on the fringes of society,” the report said. “In our view, this is troubling ….because the conspiracy theory treats immigration as an existential issue — where the stakes are framed as the very preservation of one’s self and country.”
The authors also wrote that conspiracy-based views make immigration policy disputes harder to resolve.
“While there’s plenty of room for disagreement over immigration policy, conspiracy theories make it much harder to find common ground or craft political compromises,” the report said. “What we’ve found is that when prominent media embrace conspiracy theorizing, increased public endorsement of conspiracies will follow.”
But the underlying survey data also showed that concern over immigration fell after Trump’s 2024 election victory. The study, which included surveys from 2024 and 2025, showed that 51% of white Americans in July and August 2024 agreed that they were “losing their economic, political, and cultural influence,” while 29% disagreed.
By June and July 2025, after Trump had campaigned on reducing migration and returned to office, agreement with that statement had fallen to 46%, while disagreement rose to 32%.
The same pattern appeared in responses to another immigration-related statement. In 2024, 41% of white Americans agreed that “Immigrants invade and colonize the United States,” while 37% disagreed. In 2025, 39% agreed with that statement, while 45% disagreed.
The report also said that in a March 2026 poll of 1,000 Americans, 36% agreed with the statement: “Native-born Americans are losing their economic, political, and cultural influence in this country because of the growing population of immigrants.”
The report did not attribute the decline in concern to Trump’s immigration policies.
The study was funded by several grants, including support from the Russell Sage Foundation. It focused on white Americans’ views and did not examine the impact of mainstream media outlets, nor did it include the views of African-American, Latino or Asian citizens in the same way.
The report described the Great Replacement Theory as “the xenophobic conspiracy theory that posits that political elites are embracing permissive immigration policies to bring in ‘obedient’ voters who will vote for them and who will eventually replace native white citizens.”
The study also linked recent political messaging by Trump, Republican politicians and Fox News to explanations of population shifts since the 1990 immigration bill. The submitted material cited evidence of major demographic change in the United States, as well as statements from Democrats supporting demographic change driven by migration policies.
The surveys did not ask respondents to choose among competing explanations for U.S. immigration policy since 1965. Jesse Rhodes, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who led the survey, told Breitbart News that the research was designed around support for the Great Replacement Theory rather than broader explanations of immigration.
“We were focused on understanding the causes of support for the GRT, we did not offer respondents alternative explanations for immigration into the United States,” Rhodes said.
“However, it could be an interesting – though quite different – project to investigate how people select explanations for immigration when presented with alternative options,” he added.
The report also did not center on the economic effects of Biden-era migration policy, including concerns raised by critics over wages, housing, crime and public services. It instead framed much of the opposition to mass migration as a product of right-leaning media influence and conspiracy-oriented messaging.
The submitted material also cited a Columbia Journalism Review analysis involving media coverage and immigration politics.
The findings come amid continued national debate over immigration levels, deportations and border enforcement. Polls in the United States have shown support for deportations and reduced migration, while surveys in countries including Germany, Australia, Ireland, France and the United Kingdom have also reflected opposition to mass migration tied to concerns about crime, poverty, homelessness and widening wealth gaps.
The study’s own data showed that public anxiety over immigration was higher during Biden’s term and lower after Trump’s return to office, even as the report’s authors emphasized Fox News and conspiracy theory framing as central drivers of immigration concern.
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