General Facts About Immigration

Posted on April 13, 2009. Filed under: Immigration | Tags: characteristics, Data, economy, Facts, HUMAN RIGHTS, immigrants, Immigration, Statistics, us and immigration |

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The total number of immigrants per year (including illegal and refugees) is somewhat less than it was in the peak years at the start of the 20th century, when the US population was less half as large its current population. The rate of US immigration relative to the population is low rather than high. US immigration as a proportion of population is about a third of what is was in the peak years.
The foreign-born population of the US is 9.5 percent of the total population (in 2000). This can be compared to the 2000’s proportions of 22.7 in Australia; 16 percent in Canada; 6.3 in France; 7.3 in Germany; 3.9 percent in Great Britain; and 5.7 in Sweden.
Though the volume of illegal immigrants is difficult to estimate, its estimated through a consensus of methods, that the number is approximately 3.2 million, lowered by the amnesty of 1987-1988, but not very different from the previous decade. The rate of illegal immigrants is agreed by experts to be about 250,000 to 300,000 per year. More than half of illegal immigrants enter the US legally and overstay their visas.
The United States as the great "melting pot" has become a myth. The reality is that there is a continued geographic concentration of minority groups in certain regions and in specific metropolitan areas. This holds true especially for Hispanics and Asians, who tend to enter the US through "gateway cities" such as Los Angeles and New York and then remain there.
Los Angeles is home to one fifth of the US Hispanic population. First in growth of all US cities; it gained18 percent of the Hispanic population between 1900 and 2000. Mexican and Latin-American immigrants and continued high fertility rates account for the increases.
The Census of 2000 made clear minorities grew at 12 times the rate of whites. By the year 2050 according to Census projections racial and ethnic minorities will outnumber non-Hispanic whites. In the next fifty years this demographic shift will transform politics and business.
California will achieve a statewide "minority majority" in 2004 and Texas by 2010. Though generally most communities in the US lack true racial and ethnic diversity, the Census Bureau identified twenty- one counties that qualify as "multiple melting pots" (see box below) where there is a significant presence of more than two minority groups. These communities will continue to become unique markets as the blending of culture and intermarriage transform their personality.

Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrants Continue the Historical Trend of Self-Employment into the 21st Century
Immigrants are significantly more likely to be self employed than natives. The Horatio Alger story of making good in the "New World" has carried on in the proliferation of family owned businesses such as the Korean corner store or the Hispanic Bodega.

In the last decade hi tech professional immigrants have made extraordinary contributions to cutting edge US industries. It is estimated that almost one quarter of Silicon valley firms were established by immigrants. Immigrant entrepreneurs have revitalized neighborhood; from Dominicans in Manhattan’s Washington Heights to Cubans in Miami’s Little Havana, Hispanic immigrants have transformed their communities into thriving economically dynamic strongholds.

Of particular note is the resurgence of small business, which thirty years ago was in decay. Several researchers have suggested that US immigration has encouraged the entrepreneurial drive of the total population, significantly contributing to this transformation.

Possibly because the competition for low-skilled work has intensified, a viable route up the socio-economic ladder has become entrepreneurship as an important alternative to wage labor.

Certain factors such as geographical concentration, interdependent networks of social and business relationships, and a relatively sophisticated division of labor are all factors in creating the right circumstances for small family run businesses to thrive. As an example the proportion of Cuban owned businesses in Miami from 1993 to 2000 rose from 8 to 24 percent.

Immigrant communities take care of their own and that can amount to "social capital" which can positively influence the socio-economic opportunities of the individual immigrant. "Prevailing market conditions and in part accessibility of those businesses to immigrant ownership" are important aspects in family run businesses." (University of California researcher, Roger Waldinger)

Since many newcomers retain close links with their adopted land, businesses that service needs such as tax accounting firms and travel agencies tend to flourish. In the 1960’s in Chicago the new Korean immigrants bought out businesses owned by elderly Jews who were leaving the old inner city neighborhoods and entered into the wig business selling "European" and "African" style wigs. In the seventies, the Korean deli and its ingenious salad bar became a staple of numerous inner cities.

As immigrants manifest a tendency to affiliate with others of their own ethnicity or national origin, creating a community of buyers, sellers, laborers, employers and financiers, as well as tightly meshed networks of information.

There are other researchers that argue that human and financial capital and not "social capital" are the key determinants of business activity. A study by Patricia Pessar among Hispanic immigrants in Washington, DC found "that ethnic solidarity was neither pervasive nor even necessarily desired by immigrants."

Andrew Yuengert who conducted statistical analysis suggests "Immigrants from countries with high self-employment rates have higher than average self employment in the US. And that immigrant s tend to concentrate in states with progressive tax codes, which may act as incentives to pursue self-employment, with its greater opportunities for tax avoidance. Yuengert ‘s research found that these two factors account for 62% of immigrant self-employment participation.

Other research indicates that the immigrant family, rather than the immigrant community is the key social connector. "The family’s chief advantages are not simply tangible products, such as unpaid labor, but also involve the mutual obligation and trust characteristic of solidaristic small groups." (Sanders and Nee)

The downside of immigrant entrepreneurship has been hotly debated in recent times. The image of the toiling immigrant pulling himself up by his bootstraps in a new land is something of a cliché.

In another light the ethnic solidarity that is a lynch pin to immigrant based small business can also be seen as exclusionary and clannish, impeding access to business and employment in the main stream, especially for the succeeding generation. However its appears that overall self employment is generally a positive factor for the immigrant, suggesting that entrepreneurship reflects overall economic opportunity rather than distress.

Sources:

American Demographics, Diversity In America by William F. Frey
Research Perspectives on Migration Vol 1 No.2 Immigrant Entrepreneurs
The Demographic and Economic Facts published by the Cato Institute and the National US immigration Forum
A Fiscal Portrait of the Newest Americans: Executive Summary by National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences
US immigrationforum.org (Immigrants and the Economy)