Summary

Approximately 50 million or 13.7% people in the US are immigrants, and the numbers are increasing from time to time. Most of these immigrants are here legally (70%). Not every lawful permanent resident chooses to pursue U.S. citizenship because those who wish to do that would like to apply after meeting certain requirements. A big portion of immigrants in the U.S are American citizens while the minority is undocumented or permanent residents. There has been a drop in the number of undocumented people from Mexico and an increase in the number of outsiders from central America and Asia. The US has resettled the most refugees of any country since the creation of the federal Refugee Resettlement Program in 1980, with about 3 million refugees resettled. However, this number has dropped to 30.000 in 2019 with the largest origin group being from Democratic Republic of the Congo. Texas, Washington, New York and California relocated more than a 25% of all the refugees accepted in 2018. 45% of the nation’s immigrants live in three states: California (24%), Texas (11%) and Florida (10%). In 2018, the largest immigrant populations were in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami metro areas. Also, most of the illegal immigrant population lived in these biggest American cities. Immigrants in the U.S. have lower levels of education compared to the U.S.- born population. For example in 2018, immigrants from Mexico and Central America were more likely to have not completed high school and have a bachelor’s or higher degree. On the other hand, immigrants from every region except Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America were just as likely or even more likely to have a bachelor’s degree. Between all those immigrants, those from South Asia have the biggest percentage of bachelor’s degrees.