Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

In 2007, only 511,000 people immigrated to the United States—about half the average rate since 2000, according to new census data. The foreign-born population even declined in 14 states, and in most others it grew more slowly than the previous year.

What caused this immigration slowdown? Brookings Institution researcher William Frey speculated that the recent economic downturn turned potential immigrants off. He told the Washington Post:

I think this shows that immigrants are keeping an eye on the economy when they make their decision on whether to come or where to live in the United States… When the economy appears to be in decline—particularly for the kind of construction, retail and service jobs that immigrants are inclined to take—they are less attracted to us.

He also said that increased scrutiny on illegal immigrants was likely not the cause, since the number of legal immigrants from all over the world decreased, not only Hispanic immigrants, who are more likely to be illegal. But that didn’t stop immigration restrictionists fromexpressing their delight.

Meanwhile, the data also show that immigrants who are here have a pattern of interstate migration similar to native-born Americans: they are leaving big coastal cities to move to suburbs and smaller metropolitan areas in the South and West. North Carolina, which grew faster than any other state last year, was one of the top destinations for the foreign-born, along with South Carolina and Texas.

(AP Photo)