WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 295 -- Immigration.

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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 295 -- Immigration.

Immigration, One Of The Hotter Issues Of 2006 and 2008-

First, some facts about the Mexican middle class:

1. The ranks of the middle class -- defined as $7,200 to $50,000 a year -- have risen to about ten million families.
2. That is almost 40 percent of all Mexican households.

3. The country is in the middle of a housing boom. 560,000 new homes were built last year -- a record -- and 750,000 are expected for 2006.

4. Annual inflation is down to about three percent and over the last two years interest rates on 20-year mortgages have fallen from 18 to 8 percent.

5. Sales of home appliances have tripled in the last ten years.

Good news for Mexico. And potentially good news for less illegal immigration into the United States.

And now some facts on immigration (.pdf):

America remains a migration destination for folks all around the world, not just Latin America.

And some more facts on immigration (.pdf):

Overall migration (legal and illegal) has dropped off somewhat since September 11, 2001, but those numbers are back on the rise.

And yet more facts on immigration (.pdf):

Note that the final bar on the right is a projection out to 2010. Also note that immigration in the 1800s was far more consequential in changing the demographics of the country than immigration in the 1900s (in terms of new immigrants as a proportion of the overall population), but we're now approaching 19th century levels once again.

And, finally, more facts on Mexican immigration (.pdf):

Makes sense. Some come to cause trouble or mooch. But most people come, generally, looking for jobs.

Just some stuff to keep in mind during the immigration debates this election year. Incidentally, I guarantee that the 2008 GOP Primary and Caucus voters will weigh each candidate's record and position on immigration a little more carefully than most other issues.

The country is just in that sort of mood.

Sources:
CBO (.pdf) & Pew Hispanic Center (.pdf).

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Posted by Will Franklin · 13 March 2006 08:53 PM

Comments

Maybe facts like these would end a bit of the immigraton hysteria.

Posted by: Ken McCracken at March 14, 2006 03:51 AM

Reading as to how these data are collected, it seems that there's a somewhat iffy estimation going on. The number of illegal aliens is estimated by "grossing-up" the number of immigrants in the U.S. (not quite clear on how they do it, or if they use a constant factor) and then subtracting off the legal number, from # of green cards and visas. This can introduce biases in any number of ways. (By the way, a brief description of methodology is in the CBO paper, and they do acknowledge that there's quite a bit of "noise" due to the way they estimate these figures.)

Posted by: meep at March 14, 2006 04:13 AM