Immigration to the United States:

1. Immigration to the United States: A 2001 Snapshot

2. How Many Immigrants Are Admitted to the U.S. in a Given Year? In 2001, the United States accepted a total of 1,064,318 immigrants.

3. How Are Immigrants Admitted? Immigrants gain admission to the United States under several different categories. Nearly two-thirds of all immigrants were admitted because they had relatives already in the United States.

4. From Which Regions do Immigrants to the United States Currently Come?

5. Which Countries Sent the Most Immigrants to the United States in 2001?

6. 65% of all 2001 immigrants planned to settle in one of the six states shown below. • 27% of all incoming immigrants intended to live in California. In Which States Do Most Immigrants Settle?

7. It depends. Some states receive higher concentrations of immigrants from specific countries while other states’ immigrant groups are more diverse. How Diverse Are States’ Immigrant Populations? Vs. • California: A third of all immigrants came from Mexico. Just seven nationalities accounted for two-thirds of the entire incoming immigrant population. • New York: The largest immigrant group comprised only nine percent of the state’s total. Two-thirds of all incoming immigrants came in such small national groups that less than 3% of all new New York immigrants shared their nationality.

8. Why Do Some Immigrant Groups Have More Presence Than Others? Some immigrant groups are highly concentrated, while others are more dispersed. • Concentrated: 68% of incoming Mexicans, our largest immigrant group, move to either Texas or California. • Dispersed: 68% of Indian immigrants, our second largest group, are dispersed throughout California, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. *Meaning, 91% of all Haitians entering in 2001 moved to one of four states. Yet one would only find 30% of all incoming Bosnians in Bosnians’ four most popular destination states.

9. Of Which Gender Are Most of Today’s Immigrants? The majority of immigrants today are female.

10. How Old Are Incoming Immigrants? Half of all immigrants are between age 25 and age 45. Twenty percent are either over 65 or under 15 years of age.

11. What is the Occupational Background of Current Immigrants?

12. Is There Much Variation in Immigrants’ Occupational Background? Yes. Although 8% of all immigrants who came to the U.S. in 2001 were professionals, this percentage varies greatly depending on immigrants’ country of origin.

13. How Has America’s Immigrant Population Changed Since 1820? * Note: America includes North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

14. How Has America’s Immigrant Population Changed Since 1920?

15. How Has America’s Immigrant Population Changed Since 1989?

16. What About Undocumented Immigrants? The INS’ most current estimation of undocumented immigrants is from October, 1996. At that time, the INS believed that a total of 5 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of all undocumented immigrants were estimated to live in: •California (39%) •Texas (14%) Or •New York (11%).

17. Sources: • Slides 2-15: “2001 Statistical Yearbook of theImmigration and Naturalization Services”, Office of Immigrant Statistics • Slide 16: “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990-2000,” Office of Immigrant Statistics