Most illegal immigrants are in family units, new report find
Most illegal immigrants are in family units, new report finds
This story was published Thursday, June 16th, 2005
By Andrew Sirocchi, Herald staff writer
A new report released by the Pew Hispanic Center quashes the stereotypical notion that illegal immigrants are uneducated single men who make their way in the United States working in fields or building houses.
Instead, the report found that most of the illegal population live in family units, that a quarter have at least some college education and that undocumented workers can be found in many sectors of the economy.
"Not all of the unauthorized population fits the stereotype of a poorly educated manual laborer," said demographer Jeffrey Passel, who prepared the report "Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics."
The Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C., estimated only 3 percent of the undocumented population have found work in agriculture, while 33 percent work in service jobs. Construction and other labor-intensive fields occupy 16 percent of the workers, while 17 percent can be found working in production, installation and repair fields, the report said.
The report, though, is not likely to provide an accurate picture of life in Eastern Washington. In Pasco, school officials have said the days when cafeterias were filled with the children of migrant farm workers have passed. Most farm workers are legal immigrants, but more often, officials have said it is single men or those who have left their families elsewhere who are coming to work the region's fields.
Dr. Larry Jecha, who works with immigrant families for the Benton-Franklin Health District, said his organization won't ask for a client's immigration status. But he said much of the population he sees works in agricultural fields, and it's likely that some of those are in the country illegally.
"I think (the figures are) way skewed," he said. "Those are for New York and places like that. I don't think those figures would even apply to our area."
Gabriel Portugal, a Pasco member on the Washington Hispanic Affairs Commission, also said he believes the Mid-Columbia's share of illegal immigrants working in agriculture is larger than the national average.
"Every state is different because they have more reliability on agriculture or industry," he said. "I would think that Washington has a higher percentage in agriculture than the 3 percent."
But Portugal said the national estimates are likely very accurate. Since 1994, when the Mexican peso was devalued, more and more affluent, educated and middle-class Hispanics began looking at the United States as an opportunity, he said.
"A lot of folks who were in jobs in an office -- professionals, even bankers, even nurses -- from all spectrums of professions, began to struggle to make ends meet," he said. "And so a lot of the migration (came) from folks who would not otherwise come to the United States."
On a national level, Pew estimated the number of unauthorized migrants living in the United States is nearing 11 million people.
The Pew report also estimated as many as 13.9 million people are living in families headed by someone who came to the United States without documentation, including 4.7 million children. Most of those children -- 3.2 million according to Pew -- are U.S. citizens by birth.
"The large number of U.S. citizen children born to parents with no legal status highlights one of the thorniest dilemmas in developing policies to deal with the unauthorized population," said Pew Director Roberto Suro in an an-nouncement highlighting the report's findings.
Pew developed the report for the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future, which is led by former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind. The center is not participating in the task force's deliberations or policy recommendations.
The report also found:
-- Since the mid-1990s, illegal immigrants have outpaced legal immigrants. Pew estimates 700,000 people per year arrived in the United States illegally in the past several years, while 610,000 people arrived with documentation.
-- The education level of undocumented migrants arriving in recent years is higher than that of those in the country for 10 years or more.
-- About a quarter of the drywall and ceiling tile installers in the United States are working illegally as are a quarter of all meat and poultry workers and a quarter of all dishwashers.
-- Men who arrive in the United States illegally are more likely to look for work than women without documentation.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local ... 6968c.html
