New Americans in the Lone Star State

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

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

• The foreign-born share of Texas’s population rose from 9.0% in 1990 [1], to 13.9% in 2000 [1], to 16.0% in 2008 [2], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Texas was home to 3,887,224 immigrants in 2008 [2], which is roughly the total population of Los Angeles, California [3].

• 31.4% of immigrants (or 1,220,063 people) in Texas were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008 [2]—meaning that they are eligible to vote.

• 9.3% (or 899,841) of registered voters in Texas 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 [4].

More than one-in-three Texans are Latino or Asian—and they vote.

• The Latino share of Texas’s population grew from 25.5% in 1990 [5], to 32.0% in 2000 [5], to 36.5% (or 8,879,346 people) in 2008 [2].  The Asian share of the population grew from 1.8% in 1990 [6], to 2.7% in 2000 [6], to 3.5% (or 851,444 people) in 2008 [2], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Latinos accounted for 20.1% (or 1,697,000) of Texas voters in the 2008 elections, and Asians 1.4% (118,000), according to the U.S. Census Bureau [7].

• In Texas, more than four-in-five (or 85% of) children in immigrant families were U.S. citizens in 2007 [8], 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 hundreds of thousands of jobs to Texas’s economy.

• The 2009 purchasing power of Latinos in Texas totaled $175.3 billion—an increase of 429.3% since 1990.  Asian buying power totaled $33.5 billion—an increase of 626.8% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth [9] at the University of Georgia.

• Texas’s 319,340 Latino-owned [10] businesses had sales and receipts of $42.2 billion and employed 280,156 people in 2002, the last year for which data is available.  The state’s 77,834 Asian-owned [11] businesses had sales and receipts of $20.7 billion and employed 176,571 people in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Immigrants are integral to Texas’s economy as workers and taxpayers.

• Immigrants comprised 20.4% of the state’s workforce in 2008 [2] (or 2,482,924 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Immigrants accounted for 21% of total economic output in the Houston metropolitan area and 16% of economic output in the Dallas metropolitan area as of 2007, according to a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute [12].  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 paid nearly $1.6 billion in taxes and fees in 2005 [13], according a report by the Texas State Comptroller.

• Unauthorized immigrants comprised 7.9% of the state’s workforce (or 925,000 workers) in 2008 [14], according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Texas, the state would lose $69.3 billion in economic activity, $30.8 billion in gross state product, and approximately 403,174 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group [15].

Immigrants are integral to Texas’s economy as students.

• Texas’s 58,188 foreign students contributed $1.2 billion to the state’s economy in tuition, fees, and living expenses for the 2008-2009 academic year, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators [16].

Naturalized citizens excel educationally.

• In Texas, 28.6% of foreign-born persons who were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008 [17] had a bachelor’s or higher degree, compared to 14.4% of noncitizens.  At the same time, only 30.6% of naturalized citizens lacked a high-school diploma, compared to 55.8% of noncitizens.

• The number of immigrants in Texas with a college degree increased by 66.7% between 2000 and 2008, according to data [17] from the Migration Policy Institute.

• In Texas, 70.9% 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 [17].

UPDATED: JULY 2010

Published On: Tue, Jan 19, 2010 | Download File [18]