In recent years, there have been significant changes in where undocumented immigrants come from and where they choose to settle in the United States. A new report from the Pew Research Center highlights what we know about the undocumented immigrant population in the United States and how migration patterns are changing.
THE report estimates that the undocumented immigrant population reached 10.5 million in 2021, representing about 3% of the total U.S. population, among the lowest levels since the 1990s. Overall, the immigrant population without papers decreased by 14% between 2007 and 2021.
In addition to changes in the total number of undocumented immigrants, where these individuals come from and where they choose to live in the United States is also changing. The majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States were born in Mexico, but the number of undocumented Mexican immigrants decreased significantly by 900,000 between 2017 and 2021. Experts attribute this drop in migration from Mexico to several factors , including the expansion of legal immigration pathways in recent years. , particularly for temporary agricultural workers.
While the number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico has declined, almost every other region in the world has seen a steady increase in migration to the United States, with the largest increases coming from Central America and Asia from the South and the East. After Mexico, the countries with the largest populations of undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2021 were El Salvador, India, Guatemala, and Honduras.
According to the Pew report, the choice of undocumented immigrants to settle in the United States also saw slight changes in 2021. Among all U.S. states, only Florida and Washington saw an increase in their undocumented immigrant populations. papers. California and Nevada saw declines, while undocumented immigrant populations in all other states remained stable.
You can read more details about these demographic changes in the Pew report here.