Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

The history of U.S. immigration reflects the social, economic, and political climate of the time. It also illustrates the nation's ongoing ambivalence about immigration, as well as offers insights on the role of race, prejudice, fear, and nativism in shaping U.S. immigration policy. The facts tell the story best.*

English acquisition rates are high among immigrants who come to the United States as children and rise across the generations.^[source]

• Almost 80 percent of first-generation (foreign-born) children from Mexico and 88 percent from China speak English "well" or "very well."
• Among the second generation, 92 percent of Latinos and 96 percent of Asians are English proficient and many are bilingual in their mother tongue (85 percent of second-generation Latinos and 61 percent of second-generation Asians).
• By the third generation, 72 percent of Latinos and 92 percent of Asians speak English only.

Children of immigrants are one in five school-age children.^[source]

• From 1970 to 2000, children of immigrants increased from 6 percent to 19 percent of all school-age children, constituting 11 million of 58 million total U.S. children. About 75 percent of the children of immigrants are U.S. citizens.
• In 2000, 16 percent of all students in pre-kindergarten were children of immigrants, but only 2 percent were foreign-born. In the upper grades (6 to 12), children of immigrants were 19 percent of the total student population, while the foreign-born were 7 percent of the total.

This section of the toolkit includes general facts about immigrants in the U.S. economy supported by historical empirical data and developing trends in the economy.

Immigrants are a significant, increasing percentage of the U.S. labor force growth.^[source]

• Immigrants constituted more than 50 percent of the overall growth in the labor force in the last decade.
• Between 1994 and 2004, the native-born labor force grew by 7 percent (118 million to 126 million), while the immigrant labor force grew by 66 percent (12.9 million to 21.4 million).
• Between 2000 and 2050, new immigrants and their children will account for 83 percent of the growth in the working-age population and 60 percent of total U.S. population growth.

Immigrants with legal status make up 70 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population.^[source]

Demographers estimate that in 2005:^[source]

• Legal permanent residents were 32 percent of the foreign-born (11.8 million, including 1.3 million who arrived as refugees).
• Naturalized citizens were 35 percent (12.8 million, including 1.3 million who arrived as refugees).
• Temporary legal residents (such as students and temporary workers) were 3 percent (1.3 million).
• Unauthorized migrants were 30 percent (11.1 million).

Immigrant numbers and growth rates are significant.^[source]

• The foreign-born population in the United States tripled in the past four decades and currently totals about 37 million, or nearly 12 percent of the total population.
• By 2010, the foreign-born population is expected to increase to 43 million, or 13.5 percent of the total population.