Characteristics of Immigrants
There were 37.3 million immigrants in the United States in 2007, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. This represented approximately 12.4 percent of the U.S. population that year. An overview of some of the benefits and costs of immigrants in the United States is provided in this report.
Figure 1: Number of Immigrants Living in the U.S., 1995-2007 (millions)
Legal Permanent Residents
Between 2007 and 2009 the number of legal permanent residents or immigrants has increased by 7.45 percent (78,403 immigrants).
Table 1: New Legal Permanent Resident Flow: Fiscal Years 2007-2009
*“Adjustment to Immigrant Status - Procedure allowing certain aliens already in the United States to apply for immigrant status. Aliens admitted to the United States in a nonimmigrant, refugee, or parolee category may have their status changed to that of lawful permanent resident if they are eligible to receive an immigrant visa and one is immediately available. In such cases, the alien is counted as an immigrant as of the date of adjustment, even though the alien may have been in the United States for an extended period of time,” Department of Homeland Security.
“A legal permanent resident (LPR) or “green card” recipient is defined by immigration law as a person who has been granted lawful permanent residence in the United States.” Source: Monger, Randall. U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2009, Department of Homeland Security, April 2010.
Origin of Resident Flow
In 2007-2009, the regions of Asia and North America were the two main suppliers of legal permanent residents. Mexico was the largest contributor, followed by China and the Philippines. Together these three countries contributed 25.6 percent of legal permanent residents to the United States in 2009.
Table 2: New Legal Permanent Resident Flow by Region and Country of Birth: Fiscal Years 2007-2009
Location
More than half of the incoming legal permanent residents were living in four states in 2009. California was the leading state of residence with 20 percent of legal permanent residents. The second leading state of residence was New York (13 percent), followed by Florida (11 percent), and Texas (8 percent).
Figure 2: Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status By State or Territory of Residence: Fiscal Year 2009
Unauthorized Immigrants
Estimation
In 1990, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that there were 3.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. This number had tripled by 2008 to 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants.
Origins
Mexico is the leading country of birth, contributing 59 percent (7 million) of unauthorized immigrants in the United States in 2008. The Latin American region, which includes Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, is the principal region of birth with 2.6 million (22 percent) undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2008. The second largest region of birth was Asia, which accounted for approximately 11 percent (1.3 million) of unauthorized immigrants in 2008.
Figure 3: Region of Birth for Unauthorized Immigrant Population (thousands), 2008
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The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that approximately half of the unauthorized immigrants in the United States were living in California, Texas, Florida, and New York in 2008.
An unauthorized immigrant consists of any person who is not a citizen of the United States that unlawfully entered the country.
Social and Economic Characteristics of All Immigrants: Legal Permanent Residents and Unauthorized Immigrants
In this section, legal permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants are analyzed as one group — all immigrants.
Educational attainment
The majority of immigrants who arrived in the United States between 2000 and 2007, 60.1 percent (less than high school, 35.5 and high school only, 24.6), had a high school education or less. Immigrants with some college or a bachelor’s degree totaled 29.9 percent (13.9 and 16.0 percent respectively) in the same time period. Only 10 percent held a graduate or professional degree.
Table 3: Selected Characteristics of Immigrants and Natives, 2007
Income
The Center for Immigration Studies evaluated the median annual earnings for all immigrants as $31,074 in 2007 (Table 3). There are important differences between native and immigrant median annual earnings and median household income. Native earnings outpace immigrant earnings by $9,270, or 23 percent, while native median household income outpaces immigrant median household income by $5,268, or 10.7 percent, annually.
Occupation
The Center for Immigration Studies estimated that 15.7 percent of all workers in the U.S. in 2007 were immigrants. Farming, fishing and forestry have the highest concentration of immigrants when compared to all other industries. There were approximately 911,000 people employed in farming, fishing and forestry in 2007. Of the 911,000, 36.3 percent were immigrants. Other industries with a high concentration of immigrant workers include building cleaning and maintenance (36 percent), and construction and extraction (30 percent).
Table 4: Immigrants and Natives by Occupation in 2007, Ranked by Percent of Occupation Composed of Immigrants (thousands)
