Chicago/Illinois Immigration

Chicago Immigration

Metro Chicago ranks fifth in the nation in the size of its immigrant population. A large number of immigrants have affected demography and labor market in the Chicagoland area. Following is a summary of Immigration influence on change in Chicago demography and labors.

Demography:

1. 1.4 million immigrants live in metro Chicago, representing nearly 18% of the region's population.

2. Today the 1.4 million immigrant population includes representatives from more than 100 countries – European 26%, Asians 23% and Latin Americans 47%.

3. The largest populations are from Mexico (582,000), Poland (138,000) and India (77,000). Between 1990 and 2000 the number of persons from India surpassed the number from the Philippines, while immigrants from china surpassed those from Korea. The number of immigrants from the former USSR rose by 106%. Among major groups, the most dramatic increases were seen among Pakistanis, Vietnamese and Indians. The fastest growth overall was among persons from Ghana and Nigeria. The Mexican immigrant community more than doubled in the 1990s.

Source: Metro Chicago Immigration Fact Book, June 2003

Labors:

1. Nearly all net growth in the metro Chicago labor force in the 1990s was due to immigration. Immigrants contributed 252,049 or 93.8 percent of the 268,718 workers added to the regional economy in the decade.

Source: Metro Chicago Immigration Fact Book, June 2003

Illinois Immigration

Illinois has the 5^th largest immigrant population in the nation, totaled 1,695,289 in 2005. The foreign born population represented 13.6 percent of Illinois' total population. Of the total foreign-born population in Illinois in 2005, 2.1 percent were from Africa, 24.3 percent from Asia, 23.9 percent from Europe, 48.1 percent from Latin America (South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean), 1.3 percent from Northern America (Canada, Bermuda, Greenland, and t. Pierre and Miquelon), and 0.2 percent from Oceania. The top three countries of birth of the foreign born in Illinois were Mexico, Poland and India.

Source: Migration Facts, Stats, and Maps, 2007 http://www.migrationinformation.org/