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Immigration to California
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 CALIFORNIA IMMIGRATION STATISTICS |
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Total Population: |
36,460,000 (2006) |
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Foreign Born: |
9,840,000 (2005) |
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Illegal Immigrants: |
FAIR Estimate: 2,780,000 (2005) |
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USCIS/DHS Estimate: 2,770,000 (2006) |
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Pew Hispanic Center Estimate: 2,700,000 (2005) |
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About California
California has experienced a 14 percent population growth between 1990-2000 and is now the home to more than 25 percent of the nation’s immigrants. With a population nearly 36 million people, California’s growth will most likely double within today's school children’s lifetime. In the year 2000, estimation shows that California’s people per square mile accounted for more than 215 - an average higher than the rest of the nation of more than 170 percent.
Illegal Immigration to California
In the year 2000 more than 32 percent, or nearly 2,200,000 illegal immigrants, resided in California. With the highest illegal immigration rate in the nation in the year 1999, California requested compensation of $600 million from the federal government (under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program or SCAAP) towards the incarceration of illegal immigrants. California taxpayers had to shelf out the additional $360 million as the federal government only paid $240 million in compensation. California’s illegal immigration in 1996 was estimated to cost taxpayers in California around 8 billion. Since 1992, the number of illegal aliens has increased with more than 50 percent. California provides nursing home care, pre-natal care and Emergency Medicaid to both legal and illegal aliens, a cost that is footed by California’s taxpayers. As the highest cost in the country, nearly $80 million were incurred by California’s border counties for illegal aliens’ emergency care. For each legally living person in Imperial and San Diego counties, nearly $20 per year is spent to pay for the incurred costs by illegal immigration. In addition, according to county health officials, one-third of patients treated each year by the health system in Los Angeles County are illegal aliens. Many patients using the healthcare services are illegal and uninsured. Immigrants who do not pay their bills leads to large losses for the hospitals. In order to make ends meet, California has cut its health care budget. These cuts include reduction in staff, the closing of trauma centers and maternity wards, cut back services and increased rates. In 2001 California hospital faced losses of nearly $400 million.
Immigration to California causes Housing Shortage
Between 1990-2000 California experienced a 37 percent increase in its population amounting to 8.9 million people. As the state with the largest population of foreign-born individuals, California’s immigrants make up more than 25 percent of the state’s population. Nearly half (more than 15 million people) of California’s residents are immigrants making up a larger portion than other states’ newcomers. Projections have been made that between 2000-2025 California’s population will increase to nearly 50 million people, an increase of more than 50 percent.
With more people moving to California, the demand for affordable housing increases. Even though nearly 140,000 homes are built year, it is estimated that nearly 80,000 more are needed. California is facing increasing problems in meeting the demand of affordable housing as the median-priced home valued at around $250,000 is only afforded by one third of the Californians. For renters, California is home to nearly all of the nation’s least affordable housing markets. Around 30 percent of an individual’s income goes directly to either rent, while individuals with a mortgage pay more than 40 percent of their income. In order for a California resident to afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment, he/she needs to earn a minimum of $21.18 per hour working full time. With a population increase comes less open spaces and crowded housing, increased commute and air pollution. Once home to approximately five million acres of wetlands, California’s open space is increasingly lost each year as the population grows and need for housing increases. With a loss of more than 90 percent, California’s land is disappearing quickly through development. More than 4 million housing units are needed to meet the needs of estimated population growth by 2020. A correlation with the increase in the number of foreign-born and severely crowded housing is often seen as the trend is driven by immigrants that come for jobs but who cannot afford the rents, leaving families to move in together in order to make ends meet. With nearly 10 percent of all households severely crowded, California’s cities are the country’s most crowded, left to strand various community services including schools and trash collection.
California’s poverty has increased in areas with large immigrant populations compared to the rest of the country leading to increased competition and a growing disparity amongst workers that are both foreign- and native-born. With the increased supply of low-wage immigrant labor, average incomes have overall lowered. Nearly half of Los Angeles’ residents were born in another country. Out of these, more than 20 percent live at the poverty level, clearly also reflecting the city’s population lack of higher education. On average, ten percent has less than six years of education, while people with less than a ninth-grade education make up for nearly twenty percent of people 24 and over. It is to be noted that the rate of poverty for non-immigrant children (more than 15 percent) is considerably less than that for immigrant children (nearly 30 percent).
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