More than one in four of California’s population is an immigrant, making
More than one in four of California’s population is an immigrant, making the West Coast state home to the largest number of immigrants in the US. More than half of Californians are Latino or Asian. Latino and Asian entrepreneurs – both foreign-born and native-born – own more than one-quarter of all businesses in the state, while Latino and Asian consumers account for nearly one-third of the state’s total purchasing power.
Those are among the findings of updated fact sheets for 20 states released on Thursday by the Immigration Policy Center that highlight the demographic and economic impact of immigrant, Asian and Latino communities in each state. In addition to California, the states are Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Vermont.
The reports outline the growth of foreign-born populations in those states in 1990, 2000 and 2011; the percentages of immigrants naturalized as US citizens in 2011; unauthorized immigrant populations, and breaks down voting populations by demographics. They also underline contributions by immigrant workers, entrepreneurs and taxpayers in each state.
The top five states in the US with Asian populations are California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Hawaii, according to the 2010 US Census. In 2011, California was home to 10.2 million immigrants – greater than the total population of Michigan.
California would lose $301.6 billion in economic activity and about 3.6 million jobs if all unauthorized immigrants were removed, according to the report, and New York would lose $28.7 billion and 137,013 jobs.
In his area, Xue talked about the technology corridor in Virginia where many computer science companies are based and a significant portion of the workforce is made up of Chinese and Indian engineers.