WASHINGTON, June 26 2005
IANS
(NRI), India accounted for the second highest
number of legal permanent resident immigrants to the
US last year, according to the US Census Bureau.
According to a report released on Friday, Indians
(NRI) made up 70,116 permanent residents, second
after Mexico (175,364).
The Philippines ranked third and China fourth. However,
much of the increase was due to backlogs rather than
new entrants. Pakistan sent a little over 12,000 immigrants.
In 2004, a total of 946,142 people became legal permanent
residents (LPRs) of the US.
The majority (62 percent) lived in the US when they
became LPRs. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) were granted
permanent residence based on a family relationship
with a US citizen or legal permanent resident of the
US.
The leading countries of birth of LPRs were Mexico
(19 percent), India (seven percent) and the Philippines
(six percent).
US law gives priority to immigration status for foreign
nationals who have a close family relationship with
a US citizen or LPR, who have needed job skills, who
are from countries with relatively low levels of immigration
to the US, or who have refugee or asylum seeker status.
People getting legal permanent residency had gone
down significantly in 2003, to just above 700,000,
but was higher in 2002 going above one million.
The increase last year was almost entirely because
of adjustments of status and primarily reflects backlog
reduction efforts at US Citizenship and Immigration
Services, the bureau said.
The number of LPR adjustments of status increased
by 68 percent from 347,416 in 2003 to 583,921 in 2004.
Adjustments of status represented 62 percent of all
LPRs in 2004 compared to 49 percent in 2003 and 64
percent in 2002.
In contrast, the number of LPR new arrivals increased
by just 1.1 percent from 358,411 in 2003 to 362,221
in 2004. New arrivals accounted for 38 percent of
the LPR flow in 2004.
Census Bureau data show the annual LPR flow has exhibited
an upward trend since World War II. The annual average
LPR flow more than tripled from 250,000 during the
1950s to 795,000 during the 1990s.
The increase in legal immigration around 1990 reflects
the legalization of 2.7 million undocumented immigrants
under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
California (26.7 percent), New York (10.8 percent),
Texas (9.7 percent), Florida (8 percent), New Jersey
(5.3 percent) are the top five states ranked in that
order that receive the most immigrants.
LPRs have historically been younger than the native
population of the US.
In 2004, the median age for people becoming LPRs
was 31 years. In contrast, the median age for the
US native population was 35 years.
New LPRs are more likely to be female than the US
native population. In 2004, females accounted for
55 percent of new LPRs compared with 51 percent for
the US native population. The majority (59 percent)
of new LPRs were married compared with 46 percent
of the native population.