Nearly half of Democrats would allow refugees from a fictional country to enter the U.S., according to a new survey.
In a follow-up to an “Aladdin” poll released last week, WPA Research conducted one of its own, asking “Would you support or oppose allowing refugees from Agrabah to be re-settled in the United States?” referring to a made-up Arabian country featured in Disney’s animated film “Aladdin.”
Forty-four percent of Democrats said they would support allowing refugees into the country, while 27 percent opposed. The remaining 28 percent were “indifferent.”
The poll results also explored what “Young Democrats,” ages 18-34 and “a key constituency of President Obama, are especially eager to take in imaginary refugees” thought about the question.
Two-thirds said they supported allowing in refugees from Agrabah, while 22 percent opposed.
On the Republican side, 16 percent said they supported welcoming refugees to the U.S., while more than half, 54 percent, opposed.
Last week Public Policy Polling released the results of a poll which showed 30 percent of Republican primary voters said they support bombing Agrabah.
In its press release, WPA Research criticized Public Policy Polling for targeting Republicans with deceptive questions.
“Public Policy Polling, which is known for adding questions in surveys to exploit Republicans who are less informed, recently found that 30% of Republican voters would support bombing Agrabah, a fictional country in the Disney film Aladdin,” WPA Research said.
A total of 1,132 people participated in the refugee survey by phone, and the results possess a margin of error of 2.9 percent in 95 of 100 cases. For the Democratic subsample, 384 were contacted and had a 5 percent margin of error in 95 out of 100 cases.
The question of allowing refugees from countries in the Middle East, in particular war-torn Syria, has been a hot-topic discussion among lawmakers and government officials lately. Republicans have cited concerns about the security threat allowing droves of refugees enter the U.S., which they say terrorists could exploit to slip into the nation’s borders. Meanwhile President Obama has held steadfast in an effort to resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S., while more than half of state governors have attempted to block refugees from entering their states.
