While illegal immigration has been a frequent subject of national debate, it's worth taking a look how each state is impacted individually by illegal immigration. Here's a behind-the-numbers look at how illegal immigration has impacted Massachusetts.
According to research into U.S. census data by the Pew Research Center, 14 states saw a dip in illegal immigrant populations from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, those illegal immigrants numbered about 3.5 percent of the total U.S. population — 11. 2 million — of close to 316 million people, Pew noted. Additionally, those illegals marked 26 percent of the 42.5 million U.S. residents who were foreign-born.
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For 13 of those states, the losses came from illegal immigrants from Mexico; but in Massachusetts, the dropoff was blamed on a decline of immigrants coming from other nations. Massachusetts was already one of the states with the smallest concentrations of Mexican illegal immigrants.
Immigration figures dropped dramatically in 2012 as it appeared that 25,000 illegal immigrants moved out of Massachusetts from 2009. It's unknown whether they returned to their country of origin or relocated elsewhere.
Data from the Pew Research Center found in 2012 that illegal immigration in Massachusetts:
- Was estimated at 150,000 illegal residents
- Made up 1.8 percent of the Massachusetts' total population
- Accounted for 22 percent of all immigrants in Minnesota
- Was responsible for 2.2 percent — children born to parents who were unauthorized residents — of all K-12 students
- Comprised 2.5 percent of the state's workforce; nearly 80 percent of Massachusetts' illegal immigrants were employed
- Didn't start with Mexico: only 3 percent of illegal residents in Massachusetts originated from Mexico
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