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New Americans in the Natural State

The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in Arkansas.

Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Arkansas’s population and electorate.

  • The foreign-born share of Arkansas’s population rose from 1.1% in 1990, to 2.8% in 2000, to 3.8% in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Arkansas was home to 109,257 immigrants in 2008, which is nearly the population of Springfield, Illinois.
  • Arkansas had the fastest-growing Latino population of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2005, and the fourth-fastest-growing immigrant population, according to a study by the Urban Institute.
  • 32.6% of immigrants (or 35,672 people) in Arkansas were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008—meaning that they are eligible to vote.
  • 1.4% (or 18,425) of registered voters in Arkansas were “New Americans”—naturalized citizens or the U.S.-born children of immigrants who were raised during the current era of immigration from Latin America and Asia which began in 1965—according to an analysis of 2006 Census Bureau data by Rob Paral & Associates.

More than 6% of Arkansans are Latino or Asian.

  • The Latino share of Arkansas’s population grew from 0.8% in 1990, to 3.2% in 2000, to 5.5% (or 157,046 people) in 2008.  The Asian share of the population grew from 0.5% in 1990, to 0.8% in 2000, to 1.0% (or 28,554 people) in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • In Arkansas, more than four-in-five (or 83% of) children in immigrant families were U.S. citizens in 2007, according to the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the University of Albany.

Immigrant, Latino, and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to Arkansas’s economy.

  • Spending by immigrants generated $2.9 billion in Arkansas business revenues in 2004, according to a study by the Urban Institute.
  • Immigrants (and their U.S.-born children) paid $19 million more in taxes than they consumed in education, health services, and corrections, according to the same study.
  • The 2009 purchasing power of Arkansas’s Latinos totaled $2.9 billion—an increase of 1,653% since 1990. Asian buying power totaled $964.7 million—an increase of 547.7% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Arkansas.
  • Arkansas’s 2,013 Asian-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $614 million and employed 7,099 people in 2002, the last year for which data is available.  The state’s 2,094 Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $374 million and employed 3,198 people in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Immigrants are integral to Arkansas’s economy as workers.

  • Immigrants comprised 5.2% of the state’s workforce in 2008 (or 71,371 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Without immigrant workers, the state’s manufacturing industry output would be lowered by about $1.4 billion—or about 8 percent of the industry’s $16.2 billion total contribution to the gross state product in 2004, according to a study by the Urban Institute.
  • Unauthorized immigrants comprised 2.8% of the state’s workforce (or 40,000 workers) in 2008, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.
  • If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Arkansas, the state would lose $798 million in economic activity, $354 million in gross state product, and approximately 6,660 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group.

Immigrants contribute to Arkansas’s economy as students.

Naturalized citizens excel educationally.

  • In Arkansas, 21.2% of foreign-born persons who were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008 had a bachelor’s or higher degree, compared to 15.7% of noncitizens.  At the same time, only 31.4% of naturalized citizens lacked a high-school diploma, compared to 55.8% of noncitizens.
  • The number of immigrants in Arkansas with a college degree increased by 48.4% between 2000 and 2008, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.
  • In Arkansas, 72.1% of all children between the ages of 5 and 17 in families that spoke a language other than English at home also spoke English “very well” as of 2008.

UPDATED: JULY 2010

Published On: Tue, Sep 22, 2009 | Download File

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