According to an analysis of census data by the Wall Street Journal, Indian and Chinese immigrants to the U.S. are now far outstripping arrivals from Mexico in many areas of the country, a striking reversal from the situation a decade ago when Mexican immigrants were far more common than those from big Asian countries.
The analysis demonstrates that more immigrants from India and China moved to Illinois, Ohio, Florida, New York, Virginia, Georgia and several other states in 2014, the most recent year with available data, than was the case with Mexicans. Around 136,000 Indians came to the U.S. in that year, as well as 128,000 Chinese and just 123,000 Mexicans. In 2005, Mexico was sending ten times more immigrants than China and six times more than India.
The figures include both legal and undocumented immigrants but make no differentiation between the two. Although Indian and Chinese immigrants are less likely to be undocumented than immigrants from Mexico, Asia is becoming one of the nation’s fastest-growing undocumented demographics. According to researchers at the Migration Policy Institute, 71% of the unauthorized population in the U.S. comes from Mexico and other countries in Central America, but Asia now has the second-largest share, with 13% of the undocumented immigrants.
Stopping illegal immigration from Mexico has been the cornerstone of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign, but demographers say that immigration in the 21st century is “much more Asian” and that Trump is out of touch.