El Paso has 7th largest immigrant percentage
El Paso has the seventh largest percentage of foreign-born residents out of 104 metros in the United States based on a new Brookings Institution study and U.S. census data.
Two Texas communities, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission region (with 27.8 percent) and El Paso (with 25.7 percent) were among the seven U.S. metros with the largest percentage of immigrants.
In a report released Tuesday, the Brookings Institution also found that 86 percent of all immigrants live in the 104 largest U.S. metro areas, and 80 percent live in 57 immigrant “gateways,” such as El Paso. Over the years, these gateways have shown distinctive patterns of historical immigrant settlement.
“Across all gateway types the foreign-born population is growing faster than the native-born population; their growth in the three emerging gateway types outpaces the U.S. average,” the institution reported.
“In all of the gateway metro areas, the share of the foreign-born population of prime working age (25-64) is greater than the share among the native born.”
Census data indicates that El Paso's 215,239 foreign-born residents came predominantly from Mexico. The national percentage of foreign-born residents in the United States is 13.3 percent (42.3 million people), according to the data compiled by the Brookings Institution.
El Paso was classified in the Brookings Institution report, “Metropolitan immigrant gateways revisited, 2014,” as one of 15 minor continuous-gateways for immigration across the nation.
“These destinations had an above-average immigrant population share from 1900-1950, and an immigrant population share above or near the national average in 2014,” the report said.
Audrey Singer, senior fellow for the institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said that fast-growing metros will depend on working-age immigrants for their labor needs, and that immigration is changing the nation in various ways.
Questions about whether the United States will be able to replace its labor force to remain competitive are also tied to immigration, Singer said in a statement.
“Current high levels of immigration combined with a slower growing U.S.-born population is changing our demography, and transforming the racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious, age, and skills composition of many places across the country,” Singer said.
While immigration has decreased at former immigrant magnets, such as Detroit and Pittsburgh, the regions centered in Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, called “major continuous gateways,” continue to attract large numbers of residents from other countries, according to the report.
The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its website is at brookings.edu.
For the report released Tuesday, the Brookings Institution built on its previous report “The Rise of New Immigrant Gateways,” using 2000 census data.
The institution also found that immigrants in the past tended to flock to traditional agricultural and manufacturing centers, but today’s newer immigrants are moving to the South and West for work in the technology and service sectors, the researchers found.
Census data show that El Paso’s service and retail sectors have replaced the former manufacturing industries that over the past two decades moved to Mexico or other countries to take advantage of cheaper labor costs.
Seven U.S. metros with the largest percentages of foreign-born residents and total immigrant populations:
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Fla: 39.2 percent (2.3 million).
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.: 37.7 percent (736,326).
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif.: 33.7 percent (4.4 million).
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif.: 30.4 percent (1.3 million).
- New York-Newark-Jersey City (New York/New Jersey): 28.8 percent (5.7 million).
- McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission: 27.8 percent (231,181).
- El Paso: 25.7 percent (215,239)
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at 546-6140; dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; @eptimesdiana on Twitter.