The United States has more migrants in the world with the country witnessing about a million immigrants reaching the country each year. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U S immigrants, according to a study by the PEW Research Centre.
COUNTRIES
Asia as a region accounted for 28 per cent of all immigrants.
The PEW Research Centre said that Mexico was the top origin country of the immigrant population. It said that about 11.2 million immigrants in the United States were from Mexico in 2018. They accounted for 25 per cent of all immigrants. China and India were the next countries with six per cent of the immigrant group. This was followed by the Philippines (four per cent) and El Salvador (three per cent).
It said that Asia as a region accounted for 28 per cent of all immigrants. Mexico region with 25 per cent of share of immigrants came next. Europe, North America and Canada regions accounted for 13 per cent of the immigrants, Caribbean ten per cent, Central America eight per cent, South America seven per cent, sub-Saharan Africa five per cent and Middle East and North Africa accounted for four per cent of the immigrants.
Asian will make up about 38 per cent of all immigrants by 2055
The PEW centre said that America saw more Asian immigrants than Hispanic immigrants since 2010. It said immigration from Latin America slowed down following the Great Recession, especially for Mexico.
Asians are also projected to become the largest immigrant group in the United States by 2055. They said that those who identify as Asian will make up about 38 per cent of all immigrants. Meanwhile Hispanic people will be 31 per cent, White, 20 per cent and Black nine per cent.
LEGAL STATUS
The PEW centre says in the report that 77 per cent of the immigrants are in the country legally. It said that about 27 per cent were permanent residents and five per cent were temporary residents in 2017. Another 23 per cent of all immigrants were unauthorized immigrants, they said.
IMMIGRANT POPULATION GROWING?
The report said that immigrant arrivals have fallen because of a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants. It also said that the drop can be attributed to more Mexican immigrants leaving the United States.
It said that if the present trend in immigration goes on, then the immigrants and their descendants would account for 88 per cent of the U S population through 2065. It also said that the percentage of women giving birth in the past year was higher among immigrants in 2018 than among the U S born. It said that when U S born women gave birth to more than three million children that year, immigrant women gave birth to about 760,000.
REFUGEES
The Pew centre said that about three million refugees have resettled in the country after creation of the federal Refugee Resettlement Programme in 1980. It said that the largest number of refugees resettled were from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was followed by Myanmar, Ukraine, Eritrea and Afghanistan.
IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR STATE OF LIVING
The report said that about 45 per cent of the 44.4 million immigrants live in just three states. About 24 per cent of them stay in California, 11 per cent in Texas and ten per cent in Florida.
Region wise, 34 per cent of the immigrants live in the West, 34 per cent n South 21 per cent in Northeast and 11 per cent in Midwest.
WORK
It said that about 29 million immigrants were working or looking for work in 2017. Lawful immigrants made up the majority of the immigrant workforce, at 21.2 million. An additional 7.6 million immigrant workers are unauthorized.
It said that immigrants were projected to drive future growth in the U S working age population through at least 2035. As the Baby Boom generation heads into retirement, immigrants and their children are expected to offset a decline in the working-age population by adding about 18 million people of working age between 2015 and 2035.
IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED
The Obama administration deported about three million immigrants between 2009 and 2016. Between 2001 and 2008, two million immigrants were deported by the Bush administration. The Trump administration in 2017 deported 2,95,000 immigrants.
AMERICAS VIEW OF IMMIGRATION
The PEW Centre said that a majority of Americans have positive views about immigrants. While 66 per cent of the Americans say immigrants strengthen the country 24 per cent say immigrants burden the country by taking jobs, housing and health care.
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 88 per cent think immigrants strengthen the country with their hard work and talents. Meanwhile eight per cent say they are a burden. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 41 per cent say immigrants strengthen the country, while 44 per cent say they are a burden.
