History is a great teacher, what were the percentages of immigrant influx in times past? Were the education levels between the established and immigrants of great disparity?
Were the cultural roots and geogrpahic history of great disparity?
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Immigrant birth rates up in King County, report says
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter
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One of every three children born in King County in 2002 was born to an immigrant mother, a new study shows.
That rate is more than twice what it was just a decade ago and higher than it is for the country as a whole. The national rate of 23 percent — nearly one in every four births — was the highest since a wave of immigration nine decades ago brought shiploads of Europeans to U.S. shores.
The Center for Immigration Studies, the conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank that produced the report using federal birth records, said poverty and lack of education among immigrant populations mean the findings have huge implications for education, health care and other social services in this country.
And with current immigration trends, there appears no end in sight, researchers conclude.
"We should care about these numbers because what they show is that we are dealing with an influx of immigrants in terms of numbers and makeup that is unprecedented in this nation of immigrants," said Peter Skerry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a center-left research center in Washington, D.C.
Skerry is also a professor of political science at Boston College and has studied the U.S.-born children of immigrants.
The country's fast-growing Latino population — specifically Mexicans — is driving the numbers, researchers say.
For example, the report shows that in 2002, one in every 10 births in the United States was attributed to immigrants from Mexico — the first time any single country of origin accounted for such a large share of all births. Overall, births to Hispanic mothers represented 59 percent of all the births to immigrant mothers.
Steven Camarota is the study's author and director of research with the Center for Immigration Studies — which favors immigration restrictions. He said the findings "are an important way of measuring the impact immigration has on our society. The large numbers suggest to us that particular attention should be paid to poverty rates, health insurance and other issues these children are likely to face."
Immigration advocates, however, question the point of the study, calling its conclusions nativist in a country built on the backs of immigrants.
"There are a lot of myths propagating that immigrants are using up resources ... taking jobs. Our history is one of immigration," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of the Hate Free Zone Washington, an advocacy group for immigrants.
"You can't separate the present from history. Immigration is what has brought tremendous economic success to this country, not just in the past, but currently."
Researchers used birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics as the basis for their report, which found one-quarter of all births in the United States in 2002 were to foreign-born mothers, the highest since the immigration wave peaked in 1910.
The national rate is up from 15 percent in 1990, 9 percent in 1980, and 6 percent the decade before.
Researchers estimated that 42 percent of 2002 births to immigrant mothers were to women in this country illegally.
The study also found lower levels of educational achievement among immigrant mothers.
Nearly 39 percent of immigrant mothers nationally and 33 percent statewide didn't have high-school diplomas or equivalent. That compares with 17 percent of all native-born Americans nationally and 13 percent in Washington. Those statistics mirror data in the 2000 census.
Boston College's Skerry said immigrants to this country disproportionately have been uneducated and less well off.
"There's broad evidence from economic and sociological studies showing a large component of immigrants — a lot of them with Hispanic backgrounds — that are having problems achieving the American dream," he said.
Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com
Immigrant birth rate
Immigrant women represent an increasing proportion of new mothers.
Location 1990 2002
King County 13% 34%
Pierce County 11% 17%
Snohomish County 8% 23%
Washington state 12% 24%
U.S. 15% 23%
Sources: Center for Immigration Studies
National Center for Health Statistics
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