New Americans in the Keystone State

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

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

• The foreign-born share of Pennsylvania’s population rose from 3.1% in 1990 [1], to 4.1% in 2000 [1], to 5.3% in 2008 [2], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Pennsylvania was home to 660,426 immigrants in 2008 [2], which is roughly equal to the total population of Memphis, Tennessee [3].

• 48.8% of immigrants (or 322,607 people) in Pennsylvania were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008 [2]—meaning that they are eligible to vote.

• 5.2% (or 311,525) of all registered voters in Pennsylvania were “New Americans”—immigrants or the children of immigrants—according to an analysis of 2006 Census Bureau data by Rob Paral & Associates [4].

Nearly 1 in 14 Pennsylvanians are Latino or Asian.

• The Latino share of Pennsylvania’s population grew from 2.0% in 1990 [5], to 3.2% in 2000 [5], to 4.8% (or 597,517 people) in 2008 [2].  The Asian share of the population grew from 1.1%  in 1990 [6], to 1.8% in 2000 [6], to 2.4% (or 298,759 people) in 2008 [2], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Latinos comprised 2.8% (or 161,000) of Pennsylvania voters in the 2008 elections, and Asians about one-half of one percent (or 31,000), according to the U.S. Census Bureau [7].  Although the numbers of Latino and Asian voters were relatively small, they were equivalent to nearly one-third of the margin of victory (624,551 votes [8]) by which Barack Obama defeated John McCain.

• In Pennsylvania, more than four-in-five (85% of) children in immigrant families were U.S. citizens in 2007 [9], according to the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the University of Albany.

Latino and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to Pennsylvania’s economy.

• The 2009 purchasing power of Pennsylvania’s Latinos totaled $12.7 billion—an increase of 491.2% since 1990.  Asian buying power also totaled $11.5 billion—an increase of 398.9% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth [10] at the University of Georgia.

• Pennsylvania’s 22,631 Asian-owned [11] businesses had sales and receipts of $6.5 billion and employed 42,743 people in 2002, the last year for which data is available.  The state’s 11,023 Latino-owned [12] businesses had sales and receipts of $1.7 billion and employed 10,051 people in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Immigrants are essential to Pennsylvania’s economy as workers.

• Immigrants comprised 6.3% of the state’s workforce in 2008 [2] (or 407,726 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Immigrants accounted for nearly three-quarters of labor-force growth in Philadelphia between 2000 and 2006, according to a report by the Brookings Institution [13].

• Immigrants accounted for 10% of total economic output in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and 4% of economic output in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area as of 2007, according to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute [14].  In fact, “immigrants contribute to the economy in direct relation to their share of the population.  The economy of metro areas grows in tandem with the immigrant share of the labor force.”

• Unauthorized immigrants comprised 1.5% of the state’s workforce in 2008 [15] (or 100,000 workers), according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Pennsylvania, the state would lose $5.3 billion in economic activity, $2.3 billion in gross state product, and approximately 27,718 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group [16].

Immigrants are integral to Pennsylvania’s economy as students.

• Pennsylvania’s 27,529 foreign students contributed $820.3 million to the state’s economy in tuition, fees, and living expenses for the 2008-2009 academic year, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators [17].

 Immigrants in Pennsylvania Excel Educationally.

• The number of immigrants in Pennsylvania with a college degree increased by 47.2% between 2000 and 2008, according to data [18] from the Migration Policy Institute.

• 37.5% of Pennsylvania’s foreign-born population age 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2008 [18], compared to 25.5% of native-born persons age 25 and older.

• In Pennsylvania, 75.2% 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 [19].

UPDATED: JULY 2010

Published On: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 | Download File [20]