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Special to Bijili.com
Here the author of the article confused with immigrants vs non-immigrant workers such as H1b's. Anyway nice article published at Bijili.com
Immigration keeps pace since Sept. 11
Despite the recession, 33.1 million migrants now live in the United States
By Cindy Rodriguez
BOSTON GLOBE
Neither the recession nor the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has slowed immigration to the United States, according to a study released Tuesday that shows the nation's largest immigration wave continued unabated, with an additional 3.3 million immigrants arriving since 2000.
An estimated 33.1 million immigrants now live in the United States, accounting for 11.5 percent of the total population, the highest proportion in 70 years.
It's a wave that began in earnest during the 1990s economic expansion, when U.S. employers went on a hiring spree, absorbing workers in nearly every field in an effort to keep production high and feed a voracious global economy.
But even amid an economic slump and a crackdown on immigration after the terrorist attacks, foreigners continued to pour in at the same rates seen in the late 1990s, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, DC, research group that advocates stricter immigration controls.
"Legal and illegal immigration are largely disconnected from economic conditions in the United States because life remains far better here than in most of the immigrant-sending countries," said Steven Camarota, the center's director of research.
Mexico remains the top country of origin for new immigrants, with more than a million people arriving from that country alone in the past two years. India had the second-highest number of immigrants in that time period, about 246,000. China was third, with 149,000 people arriving since 2000.
The center's analysis, using data collected by the federal government's Current Population Survey, is the first national post-Sept. 11 study of immigration, showing a continued growth of about 1.5 million immigrants in both 2001 and 2002, despite the crackdown on immigration.
Immigration has brought two extremes of workers to the United States -- a smaller group of people who are highly educated and earn more than most Americans and a larger group without high school diplomas who arrive to toil in the lowest-paying jobs.
The percentage of immigrants with graduate degrees is slightly higher than the percentage of native born with them, largely because the U.S. offers special visas to highly skilled workers, such as engineers.
But 30 percent of the immigrants did not have a high school degree, compared with 7 percent of the American-born work force.
Labor specialists say the huge discrepancy may be skewed by the fact that many long-term unemployed Americans, those who are more likely to have dropped out of high school, don't seek employment and thereby are not counted.
The study underscores that the prime reason why immigrants arrive is to work. Immigrants account for 11.5 percent of the population, but they comprise 14.6 percent of the nation's work force, with a higher percentage of them being of work age than the American-born population.
Here the author of the article confused with immigrants vs non-immigrant workers such as H1b's. Anyway nice article published at Bijili.com
Immigration keeps pace since Sept. 11
Despite the recession, 33.1 million migrants now live in the United States
By Cindy Rodriguez
BOSTON GLOBE
Neither the recession nor the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has slowed immigration to the United States, according to a study released Tuesday that shows the nation's largest immigration wave continued unabated, with an additional 3.3 million immigrants arriving since 2000.
An estimated 33.1 million immigrants now live in the United States, accounting for 11.5 percent of the total population, the highest proportion in 70 years.
It's a wave that began in earnest during the 1990s economic expansion, when U.S. employers went on a hiring spree, absorbing workers in nearly every field in an effort to keep production high and feed a voracious global economy.
But even amid an economic slump and a crackdown on immigration after the terrorist attacks, foreigners continued to pour in at the same rates seen in the late 1990s, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, DC, research group that advocates stricter immigration controls.
"Legal and illegal immigration are largely disconnected from economic conditions in the United States because life remains far better here than in most of the immigrant-sending countries," said Steven Camarota, the center's director of research.
Mexico remains the top country of origin for new immigrants, with more than a million people arriving from that country alone in the past two years. India had the second-highest number of immigrants in that time period, about 246,000. China was third, with 149,000 people arriving since 2000.
The center's analysis, using data collected by the federal government's Current Population Survey, is the first national post-Sept. 11 study of immigration, showing a continued growth of about 1.5 million immigrants in both 2001 and 2002, despite the crackdown on immigration.
Immigration has brought two extremes of workers to the United States -- a smaller group of people who are highly educated and earn more than most Americans and a larger group without high school diplomas who arrive to toil in the lowest-paying jobs.
The percentage of immigrants with graduate degrees is slightly higher than the percentage of native born with them, largely because the U.S. offers special visas to highly skilled workers, such as engineers.
But 30 percent of the immigrants did not have a high school degree, compared with 7 percent of the American-born work force.
Labor specialists say the huge discrepancy may be skewed by the fact that many long-term unemployed Americans, those who are more likely to have dropped out of high school, don't seek employment and thereby are not counted.
The study underscores that the prime reason why immigrants arrive is to work. Immigrants account for 11.5 percent of the population, but they comprise 14.6 percent of the nation's work force, with a higher percentage of them being of work age than the American-born population.