Six Maps Shedding Light on Immigrants and Refugees in America
There’s been a lot of talk the past week about refugees coming to the United States, particularly Syrian refugees who are fleeing chaos and violence in their war-torn land. Over 3,000,000 Syrians have fled their homeland for neighboring countries and Europe, but few of them have made it to the United States.
Out of the 69,985 refugees admitted into the United States in 2014 just 132 of them were from Syria, a minuscule 0.19% of all refugees. Eighteen other countries had more refugees admitted into the United States than Syria did. The largest source of refugees was Iraq (19,651), Burma (14,577), Somalia (9,011), Bhutan (8,316), Democratic Republic of Congo (4,502), Cuba (4,063), and Iran (2,833).
The U.S. states taking in the most refugees last year were Texas (7,214), California (6,108), New York (4,082), Michigan (4,006), and Florida (3,519). However, when you account for which states accepted the most in proportion to their population the results are quite different: North Dakota—1st, South Dakota—2nd, Idaho—3rd, Nebraska—4th, and Vermont—5th.
The bottom five in both total numbers and per capita numbers were Alabama—46th, West Virginia—47th, Arkansas—48th, Mississippi—49th, and Hawaii—50th.
Refugees are only a fraction of the foreign-born people who live in the United States. In fact, there are around 40 million foreign-born residents in the United States right now—about 13% of the population. California has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents—27.2%, while West Virginia has the fewest—1.2%. The number of foreign-born residents are particularly low in sparsely populated states, the Deep South, and Appalachia.
Unless you are one of the 5.2 million Americans who are American Indian or Native Alaskan then you or your descendants arrived here as immigrants at one time or another. According to the 2010 Census, just 1.8% of Americans are American Indian, Alaska Native, or a combination of the two.
One of the few groups American Indians and Native Alaskans outnumber is Arab-Americans, which account for just 0.5% of the U.S. population. While the number of Arab-Americans is small, it is growing rapidly in recent years. Between 2000 and 2011 the Arab-American population increased 47%. Currently, Michigan is home to the highest percentage of Arab-Americans—just 1.7% of the state’s population. Arab-American numbers are particularly sparse in the Mountain West and Deep South. Syrian Americans make up just 8-9% of the all Americans of Arab ancestry.
Dozens of American governors have loudly expressed opposition to Syrian refugees being resettled within their states’ borders. However, a few states have openly encouraged Syrian refugees to settle in their states, including Washington state Governor Jay Inslee who said in a statement, “Washington will continue to be a state that welcomes those seeking refuge from persecution, regardless of where they come from or the religion they practice.”
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