Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Study: 6.3 million illegal immigrants in U.S. work force study says

Overall, about 11 million live in the United States, and illegal migrants outnumber those who arrive legally each year.

The Arizona Republic

WASHINGTON - More than 6.3 million foreigners are working in the United States without legal authorization to be in the country, a new study shows.

That number represents 4.3 percent of the nation's work force.

Overall, illegal immigrants entering the United States now outpace those who arrive legally, according to the report released yesterday by Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.

The report, based on the latest comprehensive population and labor data from March 2004, estimates the number of illegal immigrants living in the United States at about 10.3 million.

"And it's probably about 11 million by now," said Jeffrey Passel, the Pew researcher who wrote the report.

Arizona, one of the highest-growth states for illegal immigrants, has attracted 500,000, or 5 percent, of the total number. That's the fifth-highest total among all states.

But what's perhaps more groundbreaking in the Pew study is that it goes beyond numbers in an attempt to flesh out important characteristics of the illegal-immigrant population.

The study finds that illegal immigrants are settling in increasingly diverse groups of states beyond traditional destinations such as Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and New York. They are generally younger than U.S.-born workers, many belong to "mixed status" families, and the stereotype of poorly educated manual laborers does not always fit, according to the study.

Here are some of the key findings:

• About 700,000 immigrants arrive in the country without legal authorization each year, compared with about 610,000 legal immigrants.
• Most of the nationwide total of illegal immigrants are Mexican-born, with about 2.4 million having arrived just since 2000. That compares with 90,000 Mexican-born immigrants who have arrived legally during the same period. The total number of Mexican-born immigrants with no legal status is about 5.9 million. Illegal immigrants from other Latin American nations are estimated to be about 2.5.million.
• The number of people in the United State living in "mixed status" families in which the head of the household or the spouse does not have legal status as of March 2004 reached 13.9 million, including 4.7 million children.
• Illegal immigrants generally are less educated than other parts of the population, with 49 percent not having completed high school, compared with 9 percent of U.S.-born residents and 25 percent of legal immigrants.
• The education level of illegal immigrants arriving in recent years is higher than the levels of those who have been in the country for a decade or more. A quarter of these workers do have some college education, and another 25 percent have some high school education.
• These working but illegal immigrants generally represent a younger population.
• There is a higher percentage of illegal immigrants who are men likely to be working in the labor force (92 percent), than native-born American men (83 percent). In contrast, women who are illegal immigrants are less likely to work, 56 percent compared with 73 percent of native-born women.
• While 3 percent of illegal immigrants are employed in agriculture, about 25 percent of all drywall, ceiling and tile installers in the United States are illegal immigrants, as are about a quarter of all meat and poultry workers, and a quarter of all dishwashers.
• The average family income in 2003 for illegal immigrants in the country for fewer than 10 years was $25,700, while those who had been in the country for a decade or more earned $29,900.

The Pew study also shows seven other states combine with Arizona to represent 68 percent of the total illegal immigrant population: California (24 percent), Texas (14), Florida (9), New York (7), Illinois (4), New Jersey (4) and North Carolina (3).

Growing numbers of illegal immigrants are settling in areas beyond these more traditional areas.

Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington and Massachusetts each have 200,000 to 250,000 illegal immigrants, the study shows.

Seven other states - Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Tennessee - each have at least 100,000 illegal immigrants.

Of the report's findings, Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said, "The large number of U.S. citizen children born to parents with no legal status highlights one of the thorniest dilemmas in developing policies to deal with the unauthorized population."