By Frank X. Moraga / Amigos805.com
The number of undocumented immigrants coming the U.S. remained virtually unchanged in 2010 (11.2 million) over the prior year, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.
While the report focused on the numbers and not the factors involved in immigration — the U.S. recession, anti-immigration rhetoric during the political campaign seasons of 2008 and 2010 and stepped up immigration enforcement have certainly had an impact in the ebb and flow of immigrants coming to the U.S. in recent years.
The number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. peaked at 12 million in 2007, prior to the start of the recession, with the number undocumented immigrants in the nation’s workforce hitting a high of 8.4 million in 2007, the center reported.
But as the recession deepened, and jobs dried up, the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. looking for work started to decline in 2008, with the number of undocumented immigrants in the nation’s workforce dropping to 8 million in 2010.
Most of that decline could be seen coming from Mexico, which accounted for 58 percent of undocumented immigrant coming to the U.S. in 2010. The number of undocumented immigrants coming from Mexico dropped to 6.5 million in 2010, from a peak of 7 million in 2007.
Economic downturns have also been a typical time when anti-immigrant rhetoric rises, as seen during the 1930s when there was a mass deportation of Mexican nationals out of the U.S. during the Great Depression.
As politicians jockeyed for the status of who was tougher on immigration during the 2008 and 2010 campaign seasons, stepped up immigration enforcement efforts could be seen on the U.S./Mexico border.
But with the easing of the U.S. recession, it appears that the decline is now leveling off and we may in fact see an increase in undocumented immigration as American businesses seek to fill a growing number of low-paying, low-skilled positions as demand for products and services start to rise.
However, the anti-immigration talk may still have a residual effect in certain areas in the U.S. The immigrant population continued to drop from 2007 to 2010 in Utah, Nevada and Arizona.
Arizona in particular is becoming known as an undocumented immigrant unfriendly state, with its legislature enacting its SB1070 immigration enforcement law in 2010, and the statehouse currently debating an anti-U.S. birthright bill.
Meanwhile, there were an estimated 350,000 children in the U.S. born to at least one unauthorized immigrant parent in 2009, making up 8 percent of all U.S. births, about the same as the prior year, according to the Pew report.
Most of those who became parents in 2009 arrived in the U.S. prior to 2004 (61 percent), compared with 30 percent who arrived from 2004 to 2007, and nine percent who arrived from 2008 to 2010.
The estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
Visit http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=133 to see the entire report.
— Frank X. Moraga has previously worked with such publications as the Ventura County Star, the Oxnard Press-Courier, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register. The views expressed by Frank X. Moraga do not necessarily represent the views of Amigos805.com