Immigration Facts and Statistics

The phenomenon of immigration carries several different definitions. In common parlance, immigration is the movement of people from their native country to another country with an intent to settle down, for the purpose of a lively hood. Now, let us take a look at the types, or domains of immigration. Immigration can be segregated into 3 domains, namely, legal, illegal and domestic.

• Legal Immigration: A legal immigration is a movement of a person from his native country to a foreign country in search of lively hood and an intend to settle down, with prior and proper permission (valid visa, passport or citizenship) from the government.
• Illegal Immigration: Illegal immigration is the movement of a person from his native country to foreign country, with an intent to find a lively hood and settle down without the permission of the government. Illegal immigration is an offense with legal consequences from the state's criminal code.
• Domestic immigration: Domestic immigration is the movement of people from an economically backward region of the country to another developed and economically well off region of the same country.

The basic principle behind immigration is that better economic condition, leads to greater employment opportunities. Illegal immigration facts and statistics point out that, in olden times, people immigrated towards the river basins because the region offered better economic prospects. In the post industrial revolution era the cities which are industrially well-developed have become immigration attractions. In the United States economic progress, high standard of living and a high value of currency attracts legal, as well as illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration in the United States from Latin America and African countries have been a grave issue. There are also several legal immigrants from Asian nations such as China, India, Japan and Korea, as well as the Middle East (especially during the Gulf wars and invasion of Afghanistan).

Immigration of people has been consistently rising in the United States, and serious concerns over illegal migration have been raised due to the following illegal immigration facts. Though there are certain pros and cons of immigration, it must be noted that it puts a certain pressure on the resources of the region. Here are a few interesting facts.

Facts and Statistics for Illegal Immigration

• According to the Center of Immigration Studies, as of 2007, there were about 12.5 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In the year 2008, the number was 11 million. As of 2010, the figure is 22,974,404. Illegal immigrants hold about 11,768,816 'skilled' jobs in the economy.
• The United States Department of Homeland Security has reported that about 4% of immigrants in United States are illegal or unauthorized. It has also been reported that about 25 - 40% of the immigrants who come into the United States with legal permission and documentation become illegal immigrants as they over-stay their visa, or they do not apply for a permanent residency status on time.
• It was pointed out that in 2005, illegal and undocumented immigrants paid $6-7 billion worth of social security tax.

Facts and Statistics for Legal Immigration

• Legal immigration and permanent settlement status is held 1,052,415 people, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as of year 2007. However at the same time there we also immigrants who illegally entered the United States or overstayed their visa. This population accounted to the figure of about 500,000 people.
• As of 2010, the United States have permitted 3 legal and litigate immigration domains (not work or naturalization), namely, family, work and freedom.
• About 15% of the total labor force of US economy consists of immigrants.
• Out of the total immigrated population, 80.5% is in the working age group of 18 years to 64.

The center of immigration studies indicates that 57% of the illegal immigrants are from Mexico, 24% from Latin American nations, 9% from Asia and 6% from Europe. The remaining 4% come from the rest of the world. There are 22,974,482 illegal residents in the USA with 586,694 people from nations other than Mexico. It was also estimated that about $37,000,000,000 (approx.) were wired to Mexico and about $306,000,000,000 (approx.) were wired to locations in Latin America. Illegal immigration problems are caused due to unsustainable volume of resources in the Southern United States. On the basis of statistics about immigration it can be predicted that the economic recession would lead to a drop in the number of immigrants per year.