U.S.’ illegal immigrants likely to live with spouse and kids, study shows

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Unauthorized immigrants living in the United States are more geographically dispersed than in the past and are more likely than U.S.-born residents and legal immigrants to live in a household with a spouse and children, according to the latest findings from the Pew Hispanic Center.

In addition, a growing share of the children of illegal-immigrant parents, 73%, were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens, says Pew’s new publication, ‘A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States’ (download it here).

The analysis builds on previous work on the size and growth of the undocumented-immigrant population in the U.S.

A 2008 report by the center estimated that 11.9-million unauthorized immigrants lived in the United States, and that this population grew rapidly from 1990 to 2006 but had since stabilized.

This new analysis also says a rapid growth of unauthorized immigrant workers has halted; it finds that there were 8.3 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. labor force in March 2008.

The report states:

‘Based on March 2008 data collected by the Census Bureau, the Center estimates that unauthorized immigrants are 4% of the nation’s population and account for 5.4% of its workforce. Their children, both those who are unauthorized immigrants themselves and those who are U.S. citizens, make up 6.8% of the students enrolled in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools.
‘About three-quarters (76%) of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants are Hispanic. The majority of undocumented immigrants (59%) are from Mexico. Significant regional sources of unauthorized immigrants include Asia (11%), Central America (11%), South America (7%), the Caribbean (4%) and the Middle East (less than 2%).’ Read on here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City