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Immigrants and Immigration Statistics 2015

There are so many different statistics when it comes to immigration and immigrants that come from Mexico to the United States. As of 2015, there is a total of  43.3 million immigrants living in the United States. These immigrants are separated by sex, age, naturalized citizens, who speaks English, who speaks Spanish in their households, etc..

Approximately 51 percent of immigrants were female. This percentage has gone up and down constantly during the past three decades. Women accounted for 53 percent of immigrants in 1980, 51 percent in 1990, and 50 percent in 2000. The reason there is a higher percent of women immigrants is because women want a better life for their family and want their children to be born and raised in the United States so that they can have a better life then they might have had growing up.

The median age of immigrants was around 43.9 years. Surprisingly, less than 1 percent of immigrants were under age 5. The percentage is so low on children because parents do not want to put their children at risk of all the dangers it could bring them while crossing. The percentage increases as the children get older. From the age 5 to 17, the percentage increases slightly. The ages that make the percentage increase drastically is when children hit the age is 18. From the ages of 18-64, the percentage increase to 80%.

Around 48 percent of immigrants which is about 20.7 million, were naturalized U.S. citizens.The other 52 percent which is about 22.6 million, included lawful permanent residents, unauthorized immigrants, and legal residents on temporary visas. Immigrants with temporary visas may include immigrants that are either students or workers. Of the 21 million naturalized citizens, 22 percent naturalized since 2010, 33 percent between 2000 and 2009, and 45 percent prior to 2000. Around 79 percent of children above the age of 5 speak English in their household. The other 21 percent spoke another language other than English. The most common language spoken was Spanish. 62 percent of the foreign speaking languages spoken was Spanish. This is usually due to the fact that most immigrants coming to the United States had Spanish be their first language or they did not know English.

More immigrants returning than migrating

After the great recession, more immigrants actually returned to Mexico rather than migrate to the United States.  From 2009 to 2014, 1 million Mexicans and their families left the U.S. for Mexico. U.S. census data for the same period show an estimated 870,000 Mexican nationals left Mexico to return to the U.S. It is hard to track of this because their is no official number of immigrants going to the United States or returning to Mexico every year. The reason so many immigrants went back to Mexico was due to the slow recovery after the great recession and due to how strict they were enforcing immigration laws. Immigrants thought that it would be much easier to just move back to Mexico, and even though they might have a better life here in the United States, it is a much better chance they can raise their family as a whole in Mexico.  

Facts on illegal immigration 2014

1. Since 2014, there were 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants. With all these immigrants, it equaled to around 3 percent of the population in the United States.
2. Out of the entire workforce in the United States ,8  million were unauthorized immigrants. This number includes immigrants who either found work illegally or are working in people's households under their order. 5 percent of those immigrants were unemployed and looking for work.
3. Mexicans made up 52% of all unauthorized immigrants in 2014. There were 5.8 million Mexican unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. that year, down from 6.4 million in 2009, according to the latest Pew Research Center estimates.
4. California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois accounted for 59% of unauthorized immigrants in 2014.
5. 66 percent of immigrants have lived in the U.S. for at least a decade. As the time passes, and laws become more strictly enforced, these numbers have gone down drastically.

How are Immigrants beneficial to the United States?

Although immigration may seem negative, immigration and immigrants themselves, are very beneficial to the United States, especially for the economy. Immigrants for one start business. With immigrants starting businesses, this creates more jobs for Americans. Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a business in the United States than non-immigrants. Immigrants also create their own job. Whether it is assisting with labor duties around a household, or providing some sort of service to Americans, immigrants find a way to make a living here in the United States. According the U.S. Department of Labor, 7.5 percent of the foreign born are self-employed compared to 6.6 percent among the native-born. Immigration could support and create up to 900,000 new jobs within three years of reform from the increase in consumer spending, according to the Center for American Progress.The demand for local consumer goods increases due to immigrants. Since immigrants come to the United States, they expect better quality in goods than then in their respective country. They prefer goods locally and from the United States than imported goods. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, alone will reach $1.5 trillion and $775 billion, respectively, by 2015. .  Several of our main careers are taken over by immigrants. Engineers, doctors, computer techs, and technology specialists are usually always immigrants. According to the Census Bureau, despite making up only 16 percent of the resident population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, immigrants represent 33 percent of engineers, 27 percent of mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientist, and 24 percent of physical scientists.  There are also Americans that can do the same, but immigrants bring in a different learning style that American might not teach. This is beneficial for the United states because industries can increase their capabilities due to new ways of performing certain tasks.

Works Cited

Krogstad, J. M., Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2016, November 03). 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/03/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

Gonzalez-Barrera, A. (2015, November 19). More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/

Gray, D., & Furman, J. (2012, July 12). Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/07/12/ten-ways-immigrants-help-build-and-strengthen-our-economy

Zong, J., & Batalova, J. (2017, April 06). Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states