Slowing Hispanic immigration and birth rates are shifting the United States’ growth toward Asians, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
For the second consecutive year, net immigration by Asians topped that of Hispanics, the agency reported. About 338,000 Asians immigrated to the U.S. in the 12 months ending July 1, up about 68 percent since the recession of 2007-’09. About 244,000 Hispanics immigrated in that 12-month period, down about 60 percent from a peak that occurred in 2005-’06, according to demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
“The Hispanic decline clearly has to do with the recession and its aftermath,” Frey said. “The jobs that many Hispanic workers take are exactly the kind of jobs that have been slow to come back – construction, retail, service workers.”
Stricter enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border also played a role, he said.
“Since the influx of non-Hispanic immigrants is less driven by unauthorized immigrant flows and not as dependent as Hispanics on the construction sector, it has served to expand the role of non-Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. labor market,” according to a report issued last week by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project.
At the same time, the U.S. continued to age as more baby boomers edged into their retirement years and fewer babies and immigrants – typically young adults – took their place.
The median age rose to 37.6, up 0.1 year from 2012 and 2.3 years since 2000.
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