New Census Data on Immigrants

AP reports that nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English, according to new Census data (http://www.census.gov) that illustrates the wide-ranging effects of immigration. The number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006.  The effects have not been uniform. In most states, immigrants have added to the number of those lacking a high-school diploma, with almost half of those from Latin America falling into that category. However, at the other end of the education spectrum, Asian immigrants are raising average education levels in many states, with nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor’s degree.

”There is no one-size-fits-all policy that you could apply for all immigrant groups,” said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau. ”I think most of the attention has been on low-skilled workers coming from Mexico. But we have 10 million immigrants from Asia, a number that’s growing.”

KJ