THE INCENTIVES AND DISINCENTIVES TO

IMMIGRATE

U.S. IMMIGRATION TRENDS

• About what percentage of the U.S. population is composed of immigrants?

• Has the rate of immigration in recent years been increasing or decreasing?

• In recent years most immigrants entering the U.S. have come from which country?

• 38.5 million immigrants (legal and illegal) lived in the U.S. at the end of 2009. This is the highest number of immigrants ever recorded-more than two and a half times the 13.5 million immigrants counted during the peak of the last great immigration wave in 1910.

• About 12.5% of the total U.S. population is comprised of immigrants.

• Mexico accounted for 30% of the immigrant population

• The number of illegal immigrants is estimated at 11 million, that’s down from 12.4 million in 2007 and 11.9 in 2008.

History of (legal) immigrantion: Percent of total population

(10Y moving average)

0.0%

0.2%

0.4%

0.6%

0.8%

1.0%

1.2%

1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Immigration is high compared to mid-1900s, but low compared to pre WW-I era!!!

Drops after 1914

Drops again during the Great Depression

Peak demand for IT workers in the mid 1990s

A lot of immigrants came in the late 1800s, early 1900s Currently about 1m

immigrants per year (0.3% of total population)

Nearly half of the post-2000 immigrant arrivals are estimated to be illegal entries.

WHAT ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL INCENTIVES MIGHT BE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CAUSE PEOPLE TO IMMIGRATE?

1. From which of the listed countries do you think people might be political refugees?

2. When do you think Vietnamese immigrants were most likely to arrive?

3. When do you think most Cuban immigrants arrived?

WHAT DISINCENTIVES MIGHT CAUSE SOME PEOPLE TO HOLD BACK-TO STAY HOME?

Nearly one in five Americans (19%) will be an immigrant in 2050, compared with one in eight(12%) in 2005. By 2025, the immigrant, or foreign-born, share of the population will surpass the peakduring the last great wave of immigration a century ago.

The Latino population, already the nation's largestminority group, will triple in size and will account formost of the nation's population growth from 2005 through2050. Hispanics will make up 29% of the U.S. populationin 2050, compared with 14% in 2005.

The non-Hispanic white population will increase moreslowly than other racial and ethnic groups; whites willbecome a minority (47%) by 2050.

Source: Pew Research Center

FUTURE U.S. POPULATION GROWTH