New Americans in the Pine Tree State

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

Immigrants and their children are significant shares of Maine’s population and electorate.

• The foreign-born share of Maine’s population was 3.0% in 2008 [1], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Maine was home to 39,378 immigrants in 2008 [1].

• 56.7% of immigrants (or 22,315 people) in Maine were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2008 [1]—meaning that they are eligible to vote.

• 1.8% (or 14,596) of registered voters in Maine 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 [2].

Maine is home to significant numbers of Latinos and Asians.

• The Latino share of Maine’s population grew from 0.7% in 2000 [3] to 1.0% (or 13,165 people) in 2008 [1].  The Asian share of the population grew from 0.7% in 2000 [4] to 0.8% (or 10,532 people) in 2008 [1], according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• In Maine, more than four in five (or 84% of) children in immigrant families were U.S. citizens in 2007 [5], according to the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the University of Albany.

Immigrant, Latino, and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to Maine’s economy.

• The 2009 purchasing power of Maine’s Latinos totaled $453.1 million—an increase of 482.9% since 1990.  Asian buying power totaled $307.5 million—an increase of 277% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth [6] at the University of Georgia.

• Maine’s 833 Asian-owned [7] businesses had sales and receipts of $205 million and employed 2,364 people in 2002, the last year for which data is available.  The state’s 731 Latino-owned [8] businesses had sales and receipts of $113 million and employed 637 people in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Immigrants are important to Maine’s economy as workers.

• Immigrants comprised 2.8% of the state’s workforce in 2008 [1] (or 19,937 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Unauthorized immigrants comprised less than 0.5% of the state’s workforce (or fewer than 3,550 workers) in 2008 [9], according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Maine, the state would lose $137 million in economic activity, $60.9 million in gross state product, and approximately 1,080 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group [10].

• The importance of immigrant workers is growing as Maine’s population becomes older.  Over the next two decades, the ratio of seniors (age 65 and older) to prime-working-age adults (age 25 to 64) in Maine will increase by 93%, according to a study by the University of Southern California [11].

Immigrants contribute to Maine’s economy as students.

• Maine’s 1,256 foreign students contributed $31.2 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 [12].

Immigrants have helped revitalize Lewiston.

• Roughly 3,500 Somali migrants came to Lewiston between 2001 and 2007, and now comprise 10% of the town’s population—the highest concentration of Somalis in America, according to a report by the United Nations Development Program [13].

• Although enrollment at the University of Maine has declined statewide since 2002, the student population at its Lewiston campus increased 16% [14] between 2002 and 2007.  Moreover, Andover College opened a Lewiston campus in 2004 and had to begin expanding almost immediately to handle the flood of applications.

Immigrants excel educationally.

• The number of immigrants in Maine with a college degree increased by 17.6% between 2000 and 2008, according to data [15] from the Migration Policy Institute.

• 28.5% of Maine’s foreign-born population age 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2008 [15], compared to 25.2% of native-born persons age 25 and older.

• In Maine, 77.2% 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 [16].

UPDATED: JULY 2010

Published On: Thu, Oct 01, 2009 | Download File [17]