1. U.S. immigration policy is based mainly on family, freedom, and work. Family: Approximately 66% of new arrivals came to be with close family members. Freedom: Approximately 8% of new arrivals came as refugees and asylees escaping persecution. Work: Approximately 16% of new arrivals came at the invitation of the U.S. employers to fill a position where there was a shortage of U.S. workers. Other: The remaining 10% of new arrivals came for other reasons under special immigration programs. About half of these immigrants came as part of the green card lottery system. (1)

2. Immigrants are people who come to a country where they intend to settle permanently and obtain citizenship. Immigrants come to work in the U.S. or to reunite with family members already living in the U.S. (2)

3. The term refugee means any person who is outside any country of such persons nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. (3)

4. C      The United States. While the U.S. is known as “a country of immigrants,” many other countries have a higher percent of foreign-born residents than the United States, including Luxembourg, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada (4).  Many other countries have percentages that are very similar to the U.S., including Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, and Greece  (5).  The percent of foreign-born people living in the U.S. is approximately 12% of the total population (6) – a group that includes naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, refugees, asylees, foreigners with temporary status (for example, foreign students), and undocumented (illegal) immigrants. 

5. A      Each year, there are a little less than one million new legal immigrants to the United States. This represents less than 1% of the total U.S. population (7)

6. B      False. Immigrants are required to pay taxes, just like everybody else. They pay real estate tax, sales tax, and income taxes. A study in 2005 found that undocumented immigrants pay $6-7 billion in Social Security taxes alone that they will never be able to claim (8).

7. A      The Urban Institute estimates that in the past decade, legal immigration has averaged 800,000 persons a year, and net illegal immigration has averaged 500,000 persons a year (9). Note: In general, estimates on illegal immigration are difficult, because the same person might cross back and forth across the Mexican or Canadian border multiple times. This inflates the number of perceived illegal immigrants.

8. A      Recent estimates show the total population of undocumented persons in the U.S. is between 10-11 million people (10). This amounts to 3.4% to 3.7% of the total U.S. population (approximately 296 million).

9. D      In 1996, a federal law was passed that heavily restricted legal and illegal immigrants from utilizing public assistance programs. Undocumented (illegal) immigrants are excluded from all federal public welfare programs (11). The only assistance they may receive is medical attention in the case of a health- or life-threatening condition.

10. A     The UNHCR estimated that by the end of 2004, there were 9.2 million refugees worldwide (12). The United States accepts up to 70,000 refugees each year. In 2004, the U.S. accepted approximately 53,000 refugees (13).

11. B      False. In fact, the current percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign born (now at 12%) is still lower than it was throughout the peak immigration years of 1870-1920 (when it was 15%) (14).

Sources of Information

(1)  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004, Table 5. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/yearbook/YrBk04Im.htm.

(2)  Immigration and Nationality Act sect. 101 (a) (15).  July, 2005.  Accessed Feb. 06 from http://uscis.gov/lpBin/lpext.dll/inserts/slb/slb-1/slb-22/slb-459?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm#slb-act101

(3)  Immigration and Nationality Act sect. 101 (a) (42) July, 2005.  Accessed Feb. 06 from: http://uscis.gov/lpBin/lpext.dll/inserts/slb/slb-1/slb-22/slb-459?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm#slb-act101

(4)  United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migration Report 2002. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ittmig2002/ittmigrep2002.htm.

(5)  Government of New Zealand. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/DC842417-969E-4F6F-9532-46D6434CD883/0/ImmigrationGraphofForeignbornResidents.xls.

(6)  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004, Table 1.1a. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/yearbook/YrBk04Im.htm.

(7)  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004, Table 5. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/yearbook/YrBk04Im.htm.

(8)  Capps, Randy and Fix, Michael. “Undocumented Immigrants: Myths and Reality.” Urban Institute and Migration Policy Institute. Oct, 2005. Accessed Jan. 06 from:  http://www.urban.org/publications/900898.html.

(9)  Ibid.

(10)  Capps, Randy and Fix, Michael. “Undocumented Immigrants: Myths and Reality.” Urban Institute and Migration Policy Institute. Oct, 2005. Pew Hispanic Center. “Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population.” 2005. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=44.

(11)  Fix, Michael and Haskins, Ron. “Welfare Benefits for Non-citizens.” The Brookings Institution. Policy Brief #15 – 2002. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/es/wrb/publications/pb/pb15.htm.

(12)  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “2004 Global Refugee Trends.” June 17, 2005. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/statistics/opendoc.pdf?tbl=STATISTICS&id=42b283744.

(13)  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004, Table 14. Accessed Jan. 06 from: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/yearbook/YrBk04Im.htm.

(14)  U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2004, Table 1.1a. Accessed from: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410654_NABEPresentation.pdf. Also, Fix and Passel. Urban Institute. 2003.