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Immigrant†or “Refugee?†Numbers of ImmigrantsEstimates of the numbers of immigrants in the United States range from 28.4 to 31.1 million, based on varying interpretations of census data collected in the year 2000. (The total U.S. population in 2000 was 281 million.)Photo from: Echando Raices/ Taking Root Iowa immigrants relax at a soccer game. Immigration has been growing rapidly in recent decades; an analysis by the Urban Institute estimates that immigrants have almost doubled their share of the U.S. population since 1970.In the year 2000, again according to the Urban Institute, 36 percent of immigrants (11 million people) were legally documented, 32 percent (9.9 million) were naturalized citizens, 28 percent (8.5 million) were undocumented, and 4 percent (1.3 million) were “legal nonimmigrants†(such as students or temporary workers).Immigration in Global PerspectiveAs of 2001, estimates of the worldwide number of migrants ranged from 150 to 250 million. The worldwide number of refugees was estimated at 35 million in the year 2000 by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), including more than 14.5 million international refugees and 21 million internally displaced people. The United States admitted a cumulative total of some 460,000 refugees between 1987 and 2000, or about 70,000–80,000 people a year — a very small portion of the total.Countries of OriginAs of 2000, more than half of the foreign-born population in the United States came from Latin America and the Caribbean, including nearly 30 percent from Mexico, 9.9 percent from the Caribbean, and 6.6 percent from South America. In 1960, by contrast, only 9 percent of the foreign-born population was from Latin America. Larger view. Countries of birth of foreign-born population with 500,000 or more, in 1990 and 2000. From “Profile of the Foreign-Born Population,†U.S. Census Bureau, Dec. 2001. More than a quarter of the foreign-born population, or 25.5 percent, was from Asia, with the largest numbers coming from China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Korea. Immigrants from Europe constituted 15.3 percent of the total, and all other regions accounted for 8.1 percent. Immigration from Africa, while still small in absolute numbers, is growing rapidly, with the foreign-born population from Africa increasing from 400,000 in 1990 to 700,000 in 2000Legal Status of ImmigrantsAs of 2000, the largest percentage of undocumented immigrants was from Mexico (54 percent). Other sources of undocumented immigration include El Salvador (7 percent), Guatemala (3 percent), Canada (2 percent), Haiti (2 percent), and the Philippines (2 percent). The remaining 30 percent came from other countries.For the decade from 1990 to 2000, the highest percentage of legally documented immigrants, 40 percent, was from Asia. Twelve percent of legally documented immigrants were from Mexico and an additional 24 percent were from other Latin American or Caribbean nations. Twenty percent were from Europe or Canada.According to the National Immigration Forum, four out of 10 undocumented immigrants enter the country legally on temporary visas as students, visitors, tourists, or temporary workers, and stay after their visas expire. Policy changes enacted in 1996 (see Immigration Law and Policy) have made it far more difficult for undocumented immigrants to “adjust†their status — that is, to apply for residency based on family ties or other factors. Partly as a result, the total number of undocumented people is rising quickly.Where Immigrants Settle Larger view. New Immigration Growth Centers. Adapted from “The Dispersal of Immigrants in the 1990s “ by Michael E. Fix and Randolph Capps, Washington, Urban Institute, Nov. 2002. Reprinted by permission. The map of immigrantion growth centers shows the states with the greatest concentrations of immigrants in the year 2000: California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois. Most immigrants settle in large urban areas, such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, or Houston. These are considered the traditional “receiving areas†for U.S. immigrants.A more recent phenomenon is the influx of immigrants to smaller cities and towns in the Southeast and Midwest. The “restructuring†of the meat-packing industry is typical of the economic changes bringing immigrants to these new destinations — and of the very particular challenges they face on their arrival.Other Changes in Immigration PatternsThe graph of immigrant numbers shows overall changes in immigration over the past 150 years. Absolute numbers of immigrants are higher than ever before. Their percentage of the U.S. population, however, has grown much more slowly. Estimates of the foreign-born population in 2000 ranged between 10.5 and 11 percent — higher than it has been since 1930, but still well below the peak of nearly 15 percent between 1870 and 1910.Larger view. From “Immigrant Numbers and Flows,†Jeffrey Passell, Urban Institute, Dec. 2001. Reprinted by permission. Marked increases in Mexican immigration during the 1990s were a key factor in the overall increase in both legally documented and undocumented immigration. The Mexican-born population of the United States has nearly doubled over the past decade, largely as a result of some of the economic changes discussed in the Roots of Migration.Immigrant HouseholdsOverall statistics do not indicate the large number of children who live in immigrant families. Relatively few children under 18 (3.8 percent of all children in the United States) are immigrants themselves. A much larger number (15.5 percent), however, are U.S.-born children of immigrants. When these numbers are added together, they show that nearly one in five children in the United States are children of immigrants. In California, 49 percent of all children are children of immigrants.Many immigrant households are “mixed status†households — that is, they include members with different immigration status. For example, one spouse may be a permanent resident while the other is undocumented. U.S.-born children cannot help their parents adjust their status until they are over 21. Even if they would otherwise be eligible, many low-income immigrants cannot meet the stiff income requirements established by federal law for sponsoring their family members to become legal residents. As a result, the many uncertainties and vulnerabilities experienced by undocumented immigrants — economic, social, and legal — also affect countless citizens and legal residents, because they live in mixed-status households.Immigrants and Labor MarketsImmigrants are integrated into the U.S. economy in many different ways. In line with the overall “racial segmentation†of the U.S. labor force, immigrants of different ethnic groups and different national origins may have very different occupations and income levels. Immigration status also plays a key role in determining immigrants’ degree of economic security. In addition, the economic situation of immigrants may vary considerably depending on how long they have been here.Some immigrants are entrepreneurs, high-tech workers, computer programmers, or health professionals. Other immigrants are skilled industrial workers — machinists, pipe fitters, tool and die makers, and the like. Still others are domestic workers, factory workers, restaurant or hotel workers, farm workers, or laborers.Most individuals move through several of these categories over a period of time. José Alejandro Salazar, one of the members of the Association for Citizenship and Residency in America who appear in the AFSC video documentary Echando Raices/Taking Root, recounts how he began his life in Houston as a waiter. “My first paycheck for a week’s work was for $110,†he says, “for working more than 100 hours.†When he obtained his first work permit (because of a class action suit filed by “late amnesty†applicants; see Immigration Law and Policy) he was able to obtain a 40-hour-a-week job with health coverage. Over time, he learned a skilled trade as a pipe fitter in the oil industry; at the time of his interview, he was a master craftsman. His dream today is to open his own restaurant.As this example illustrates, statistics cannot convey the complexity of immigrant life. What they do show, however, is that immigrants are more vulnerable to poverty than the population as a whole. Low-wage work is a major factor: in 1999, according to census data, fulltime, year-round workers earning less than $20,000 a year represented 36.3 percent of immigrant workers, compared to 21.3 percent of U.S.-born workers. Immigrants who fell in this category included 57.1 percent of workers from Mexico and Central America, 22.4 percent of those from Asia, and 16.2 percent of those from Europe. At the other end of the spectrum, professional and managerial workers included nearly 39 percent of Asian immigrants, 31 percent of U.S.-born workers, and 7 percent of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.