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07-19-2006, 07:02 AM #1
Naturalizations Up Sharply in the State
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/14/nyreg ... 20Refugees
July 14, 2006
Naturalizations Up Sharply in the State
By AVI SALZMAN
IN a banner year for naturalizations in Connecticut, more immigrants gained citizenship last year than in all but one year since 1986.
Fairfield County area had the most. In the Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport area, 3,320 immigrants became citizens during the 2005 fiscal year, a 45 percent increase from 2004, when 2,291 immigrants became citizens. The Hartford area had the second most immigrants naturalized in 2005, with 2,561. The fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
The Department of Homeland Security, which tracks immigration numbers, does not provide statistics for individual counties or cities. Instead, it groups regions based on Census Bureau population statistics. The Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport statistics, for instance, include numbers from municipalities in other parts of Fairfield County.
Throughout Connecticut, 8,169 immigrants became citizens, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year, when 5,957 immigrants gained citizenship. The number of new citizens in Connecticut last year was more than any other year since 1986 except for 1997, when 8,452 people gained citizenship.
California, New York and Florida led the nation in the number of immigrants becoming citizens. California had more than 170,000 new citizens. Nationally, 604,280 people gained citizenship.
In Connecticut, most of the newly naturalized citizens came from Jamaica, with 775, followed by India, with 587, and Poland, with 555.
Myra M. Oliver, the executive director of the International Institute of Connecticut, a nonprofit social services group that helps immigrants, said she was not surprised that statistics showed that more people were becoming citizens. She said the number of people taking citizenship classes on the weekends at the institute had increased. At a time when immigration is a heated political issue, immigrants want to solidify their legal status in the United States, she said, and want a chance to participate in American society.
“I think people want to vote,” she said.
Contributing to the increase, the state had an influx of refugees in the late 1990’s, particularly Africans, Kurds and people from the Kosovo region, Ms. Oliver said.
It takes about five years to become a citizen once an immigrant has started the process, so many of those refugees are now becoming citizens, she said.
Philip E. Berns, a Stamford lawyer who focuses on immigration issues, said many of his clients who have been in the country legally for many years had begun seeking citizenship because of concerns over the debate in Congress about stricter immigration laws and fears about the war on terrorism.
“A lot of people are stepping forward to get citizenship who were not doing so before,” he said. “They are really scared.”END OF AN ERA 1/20/2009
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07-19-2006, 10:29 AM #2“A lot of people are stepping forward to get citizenship who were not doing so before,” he said. “They are really scared.”REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!
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