| Immigration Policy
Brief August 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last updated August 16, 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New Census Bureau Data Underscore Importance of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Force by Rob Paral* Introduction: New data from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS)1, released by the Census Bureau on August 15, 2006, underscore the extent to which immigration continues to fuel the expansion of the U.S. labor force. The foreign-born population of the United States increased by 4.9 million between 2000 and 2005; raising the total foreign-born population to 35.7 million, or 12.4 percent of the 288.4 million people in the country. The foreign-born population includes legal immigrants who come here on permanent and temporary visas for work, study, and family reunification, as well as an estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants who come for the same reasons but are generally precluded from obtaining visas by shortcomings in the U.S. immigration system. Since most legal and undocumented immigrants alike come to the United States to work, it is no surprise that they are moving to all regions of the country. While the majority of immigrants still settle in traditional “gateway” states such as California, Florida, New York, and Texas, growing numbers also are settling in “non-traditional” destinations like South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Moreover, immigration is stabilizing the populations of many Northeastern states such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Yet the continued growth of the immigrant population and its dispersion to new locales does not imply that native-born workers are being displaced or otherwise disadvantaged by the influx of foreign-born workers. Quite the opposite, in fact. Immigrants are going where there are job openings and economic opportunities. As a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center concludes: “Between 2000 and 2004, there was a positive correlation between the increase in the foreign born population and the employment of native-born workers in 27 states and the District of Columbia,” which “accounted for 67% of all native-born workers and include all the major destination states for immigrants.”2 The primary reason that immigrants don’t have a negative impact on the majority of native-born workers is that they aren’t competing for the same jobs. The U.S. population is growing older and better educated, while the U.S. economy continues to create a large number of jobs that favor younger workers with little formal education. As a result, immigrants increasingly are filling jobs at the less-skilled end of the occupational spectrum for which relatively few native-born workers are available. According to the new ACS data, between 2000 and 2005, the median age of the U.S. population increased from 35.3 to 36.4 years old. During the same period, the share of adults with at least a high-school diploma increased from 80 to 84 percent, while the share with at least a bachelor’s degree rose from 24 to 27 percent. Not surprisingly, few of these better educated (and older) native-born workers are willing or able to fill the frequently strenuous less-skilled jobs that don’t even require a high-school education. But immigrants are. That immigrants come here to fill available jobs is evident in the fact that, as of 2005, 94 percent of adult male undocumented immigrants and 86 percent of adult male legal immigrants were in the labor force.3 As Congress debates competing proposals for comprehensive immigration reform, it would do well to pay close attention to these trends. Immigrants are already an integral part of U.S. society and an indispensable part of the U.S. labor force. National Findings According to the 2005 ACS data, the foreign-born population in 2005
numbered 35.7 million. While the U.S. population as a whole increased by
5.4 percent in the 2000-2005 period, the number of immigrants grew three
times faster, at a rate of 16 percent.
About one in eight persons in the United States was born outside the
country as of 2005. This represents an increase of more than one percent
in five years. Immigrants comprise an even greater share of adults in the
United States: 15.1 percent, or one in six persons.
Immigrants from Latin America constituted a majority (57.3 percent) of
the 7.9 million new immigrants who arrived in the United States between
2000 and 2005. One quarter of recent arrivals came from Asia and about 9.6
percent from Europe. However, over this same time period, about 3 million
foreign-born individuals in the United States either died or returned to
their home countries, meaning that the foreign-born population as a whole
increased by a lesser margin of 4.9 million.
State-by-State Trends Six states have immigrant populations of more than one million: California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. These states have long been the major ports of entry for immigrants to the United States and this continues to be the case today. In 2005, two-thirds of immigrants in the United States resided in these traditional immigration gateways. However, immigrant populations of more than 500,000 are now found in new destinations such as North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. California still is the state with the highest proportion of immigrants in its population. More than 27 percent of California residents were foreign-born in 2005. Immigrants account for more than one in six persons (15 percent or more) in seven states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, and Hawaii. Although the largest immigrant populations are still concentrated in a
relatively small number of states, immigration growth rates are highest in
“non-traditional” destinations in the South and Midwest. For instance, the
number of immigrants in South Carolina grew by 47.8 percent in just the
2000-2005 period. In Georgia (which has the ninth largest immigrant
population in the United States), the foreign-born population increased by
almost 39 percent in five years.
Much of the immigration occurring in states with the highest
immigration growth rates is recent. About 38 percent of immigrants in
Alabama, for example, have entered the United States since 2000. Similar
percentages are found in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The
presence of many newly arrived immigrants suggests a need for settlement
policies such as English-language classes to facilitate the integration of
immigrants into U.S. society and thereby maximize their contributions to
the U.S. economy.
In many Northeastern and Midwestern states which have aging populations
and are experiencing out-migration and low fertility rates among natives,
immigration plays an especially critical role in maintaining population
size. Massachusetts is the most striking example. New immigration since
2000 actually exceeded overall population growth, suggesting that the
state would have experienced a net population decline in the absence of
immigration. Immigration also is a major factor in population stability in
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
Naturalized immigrants make up an increasing share of the potential
electorate in states with large immigrant populations. Nowhere is this
more evident than in California, which not only has a large immigrant
population, but also was the site of large-scale naturalization drives in
the 1990s. Today, naturalized immigrants comprise one in five voting-age
adults in California. Naturalized immigrants are more than 10 percent of
adults in New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Florida.
Conclusion The growth of the immigrant population since 2000, as well as the
dispersion of immigration to new destinations and its role in shoring up
the populations of some states, highlights the profound importance of
immigration to the U.S. labor force. As a recent study by the Migration
Policy Institute concluded, immigrant workers will likely account for
between one-third and one-half of total U.S. labor-force growth through
2030.4 The breadth and depth of this phenomenon contrasts with
the failure of Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform to
adjust our nation’s immigration laws to match demographic reality. Much
more is needed in terms of admissions policy, including new categories of
permanent and temporary visas for workers, family members, students, and
other visitors, as well as the lifting of arbitrary numerical caps on
immigration. Lawmakers also need to devote greater attention to settlement
policy, such as English-language instruction and assistance with meeting
other requirements for naturalization, to better integrate immigrants into
U.S. society and increase their contributions to the U.S. economy. One can
only hope that our lawmakers finally open their eyes to the demographic
march of immigration. August 2006 Endnotes Copyright 2006 by the American Immigration Law Foundation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
