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Immigrant numbers up 15% in state since 2000
Biggest hike comes from Latin America
By Michael Levenson and Yuxing Zheng, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | August 16, 2006

The number of immigrants living in Massachusetts households climbed 15.4 percent in the first half of this decade, a sharp increase driven by an influx of Brazilians and others from Latin America, according to new data released by the US Census Bureau.

About 14.4 percent of the state's population was foreign-born in 2005, up from about 12.2 percent in 2000, according to the census data. The number rose from 772,983 in 2000 to 891,184 last year, the data showed. About 55 percent of the immigrants in the state last year were not US citizens, though the census did not tabulate how many reside legally on work visas or other documents.

The surge of immigrants to Massachusetts offset an exodus of people from the state that has alarmed policy makers and business people. The latest figures underscored how Massachusetts is changing and suggested that while others have left the state for less expensive housing, better jobs, and milder weather, immigrants are keeping the state's population level at about 6.4 million.

``Immigrants are going to be a prime demographic engine for growth in Massachusetts," said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. ``It's an area that has been losing domestic migrants out of the Boston area, an area that goes up and down in terms of the economy. But one constant is going to be the steady flow of immigrants, and I think that's important."

The biggest increase in immigration to Massachusetts came from Latin America. The census found that 321,321 people living in Massachusetts last year were born in Latin America. The figure represents 37 percent of the total immigrant population in 2005 and amounted to a 40.7 percent increase over 2000, the census reported.

Among Latin Americans in Massachusetts, the population of Central Americans rose by 67.7 percent between 2000 and 2005, and the number of South Americans rose by 107.5 percent, the census found. And among South Americans, the largest group to increase appeared to be Brazilians, whose numbers rose by 131.4 percent, to 84,836.

``Then we start to open businesses," said Fausto da Rocha, executive director and founder of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston. ``We bring a labor force, a young labor force. And a lot of Brazilians have a high school diploma, and many of them have a higher education. And that makes it easy to open a business and help more in the economy."

Mary Silveira, 39, who moved from Brazil to Boston five years ago to study English, works as a secretary at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Allston and takes English classes at Jackson Mann Community Center.

``A person my age in my country doesn't have anywhere to work, like you're too old, retired," she said yesterday at the Catholic Community Center in Allston. ``If I came back right now to my country, I have to fight a lot for a job."

Silveira said she also loves living in Boston because she feels secure and enjoys the every-day freedoms of American life.

``I feel very safe here. I can walk at 10 p.m. by myself," she said. ``In my country, I couldn't do that. I feel that I don't need to observe one style of life. I'm free here to dress how I want, how I like. If I want to walk barefoot, I can."

After Latin Americans, the second fastest-growing immigrant group came from Africa, which saw a 26.7 percent increase in its population, to 59,322 in 2005, the census showed. The population of Asian immigrants grew by 20.3 percent, to 242,546 in 2005, and the number of Caribbean immigrants increased by 16 percent, to 128,979.

Europeans, meanwhile, were the only immigrant group to decrease in population during the period, dropping by 4.6 percent to 229,556 in 2005, the data showed.

The figures came from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, an annual tally of residents conducted by mail, telephone, and in person, which supplements the full count of Americans conducted every 10 years. The figures represent a tally of people living in households, which excludes what the Census Bureau considers ``group quarters," such as dormitories, prisons, and military bases.

Nationally, the number of foreign-born residents living in households increased by about 16 percent, to 35,689,842, in the first half of this decade, the census found.

In Massachusetts, a majority of immigrants are moving to Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Quincy, and Brockton.

But in the next five or 10 years, as many find more economic stability, they will move out to suburbs beyond that traditional urban core, said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, an urban planning group that represents 101 cities and towns around Boston.

``Because we have tended to lose some native-born population, it's actually helpful that we have seen robust international immigration," Draisen said. ``We need people to fill jobs, and we need to attract employers. And, in many in cases, international immigrants fill those roles."

The city's Brazilian population rose by 17 percent over the first half of the decade, to 5,454 in 2005, the census found.

``Between 10, 20, 30 years from now, the Brazilian community, especially in Boston, I think we're going to be in some key positions politically and economically," da Rocha said. ``We're going to be like the Italians and the Irish are now."

Overall, Boston lost 30,107 residents in the first half of the decade, a steep drop that ranked the city among the biggest population losers of any major municipality in the country, according to Census Bureau estimates earlier this year. Immigrants were a part of that loss: The figures released yesterday showed that the city's foreign-born population decreased by about 5 percent.