Anti-immigrant and anti-immigration are labels that are often considered inaccurate or prejudicial by those to whom they are applied.

To the extent that there are people who hold anti-immigrant sentiments, they justify them with their belief that immigrants:

• isolate themselves in their own communities and refusing to learn the language/culture.
• steal the jobs
• damage the sense of community and nationality
• increase the consumption of scarce resources

Prominent opinion leaders that oppose immigration and immigrants' rights blame immigration for several problems, including unemployment, crime, harm to the environment, and detoriating public education. Their critics often argue that while the problems are real, blaming immigrants is rather a form of scapegoating.

Anti-immigration views in Europe are based particularly on the influx of Moslems from Turkey and Northern Africa. Prominent European opponents of this migration include Jörg Haider, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Pim Fortuyn (deceased). Anti-immigration views are held by virtually all neo-nazist, and ethnic and racial separatist movements in Europe and the US, as well as by moderates with no connections to those groups.

In the United States, anti-immigration views have a long history, including the Know Nothings Party of the mid-19th Century and the Immigration Reduction League of the early 20th Century. An immigration reductionism movement formed in the 1970s and continues. Prominent members of the movement deny being anti-immigration or anti-immigrant, though they acknowledge pressing for 75-95% reductions in immigration levels and support laws that target immigrants. Illegal immigration, principally from Mexico, is the leading concern for most immigration reductionists. See also: Immigration to the United States.

American nativist resentment experienced a resurgence in the late 20th century, this time directed at 'illegal aliens,' largely from Mexico, South America and Asia resulting in the passage of rather harsh immigration laws in 1996--that did little to restrict overall levels of immigration. Much of this anti-immigration sentiment was associated with opposition to NAFTA which was considered to be a major factor in accelerating immigration from Mexico. After the attacks on New York City and other landmarks in 2001, nativist resentment and islamophobia were amplified and directed towards immigrants in general and individuals perceived to be either Arab and/or Muslim being the target of hate and hate-related crime as well as the passage of even harsher anti-immigrant laws. Laws directed at employers of illegal aliens were rarely enforced under the 2000-2004 Bush administration-which had the effect of creating a large workforce in the United States with limited political rights.