Significant Rise in Chinese Immigration to the USA
In a surprising study recently released by the Census Bureau, China has sent more immigrants to the United States than Mexico. China was the country of origin for 147,000 recent U.S. immigrants, while Mexico sent just 125,000. For the study, presented last week at the Population Association of America conference in San Diego, researchers analyzed annual immigration data for 2000 to 2013 from the American Community Survey.
The mandatory annual survey conducted by the Census Bureau asked where respondents lived the year before. This study included undocumented illegal immigrants as the questions did not ask about legal status. Therefore, while the data does certainly include undocumented immigrants, it is likely that this number is significantly undercounted. In 2012, Mexico and China had been basically tied for top-sending country—with Mexico at 125,000 and China at 124,000. But Chinese immigration has now passed that from Mexico.
China and India hold the world’s largest collective populations, and their immigrants are increasingly moving to the United States in order to study, work, and unite with families in the country. Meanwhile, immigration from Mexico has been declining due to improvements in the Mexican economy and lower Mexican birthrates. More recently, the U.S. recession also reduced illegal immigration from Mexico. In 2012, five times as many immigrants in the U.S. were from Mexico than China, however the changing nature of the immigrant flows seen in the Census study provide a glimpse of what is likely to happen to the overall racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. population.
According to Census projections, by 2044 the entire U.S. population will have no racial majority, and, instead, a melting pot of minorities will shape American society and politics. Hispanics are still the U.S.’s largest racial or ethnic minority group, but about two-thirds of them are now native-born, not recent immigrants. More interestingly, will the Chinese soon replace Hispanics for that ethnic minority title in the United States?
Buda Law Group is happy to represent both the Chinese and Hispanic communities and has been successfully serving their immigration needs for years. The team at Buda Law Group is fluent in both languages and would be happy to assist you with any immigration questions you may have.
Thank You,
John B. Buda, Esq.
www.budalawgroup.net
office: 626-796-1422
john.buda@budalawgroup.net
1201 W. Huntington Dr. Suite 209
Arcadia, CA 91007
