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Mississippi

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2008 CB est.):	2,938,618
Population (2000 Census):	2,844,658
Foreign-Born Population (2008 FAIR est.):	53,830
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	39,908
Share Foreign-Born (2008 FAIR est.):	1.8%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	1.4%
Immigrant Stock (2000 CB est.):	61,000
Share Immigrant Stock (2000 est.):	2.1%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2000 CB est.):	20,586
Share Naturalized (2006):	40.3%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2007):	11,387
Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2007):	280
Illegal Alien Population (2008 FAIR est.):	25,000
Projected 2050 Population  (2006 FAIR)	3,528,137

Mississippi : General Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the Current Population Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2008 Mississippi’s population had increased to 2,938,618 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 11,320 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.4 percent per year.

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey, the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2008 the state’s population increased by about 10,715 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 1,290 residents, i.e., more than one-ninth (11.4%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

The 2000 Census found 2,844,658 persons resident in Mississippi. This was an increase of 271,442 persons above the 1990 Census. The rate of increase (10.5%) in the population was the 24th fastest in the country, but the amount of increase was not among the 25 highest in the country.

The 2000 population is about 30,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its most recent state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau has concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of Mississippi was 50,348 persons in 2006. The ACS is a large-scale, continuous sampling process designed to replace the need for a long-form in the 2010 Census. However, because the ACS does not have the same follow-up procedures as the Census to include non-respondents, it may underestimate the foreign-born population.

FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of Mississippi was about 53,830 residents in July 2008. This meant a foreign-born population share of 1.8 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 1,675 people, which is more than one-seventh (14.8%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 34.9 percent compared to a 2.9 percent increase in the native-born population.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 3.6 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 1,585 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for about 3,250 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than one-fourth (28.8%) of the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census found that 49.6 percent of Mississippi's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is a much higher share than the national average (43.7%).

An indicator of the change in the immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000 the share of non-English speakers at home in Mississippi increased slightly, from 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent. Fewer than two-fifths (37.7%) of those who said they spoke a language other than English at home in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in Mississippi in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	50,515
French	10,435
German	5,500
Choctaw	5,420
Vietnamese	4,915
Chinese	2,115
Tagalog	2,005
Korean	1,485
Italian	1,335
Arabic	1,080
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that in 2006, the state’s foreign born population was 51,044 residents, an increase of 27.9 percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 20,383 to 39,908 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 95.8 percent.

The ten countries below constituted 61.2% of the foreign-born population in Mississippi in 2006. Mexico accounted for 27.8% alone.

Foreign-Born Change Since 1980: Top Ten Countries 1980-2000
Rank	Country	1980		Country	1990		Country	2000
1	Vietnam	2,284		Mexico	9,484		Mexico	14,206
2	Germany	1,807		Vietnam	3,338		India	3,461
3	United Kingdom	1,694		Germany	2,595		Philippines	3,015
4	India	1,284		India	2,351		Vietnam	2,503
5	Philippines	1,144		Philippines	2,205		Germany	2,229
6	Canada	1,131		United Kingdom	2,078		China	1,641
7	Korea	836		China	1,905		Canada	1,228
8	China	741		Canada	1,685		Japan	1,137
9	Mexico	702		Korea	1,236		England	1,092
10	Japan	682		Japan	703		Korea	919
	All Other	8,078		All Others	12,328		All Others	19,613
	Total	20,383		Total	39,908		Total	31,431

Connect To Legal Immigration Admission Data

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK

The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 61,000 people in Mississippi in 2000 who were "immigrant stock." That is a term that refers to immigrants and their children born here after their arrival. Based on that estimate, and a population of 2,844,658, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 2.1 percent.

As the graph below shows, the amount of Mississippi’s population change due to the increase in the foreign stock is rising. Over the past 34 years the new immigrants and children born to them have added about 56,100 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 8.3 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 20,586 residents, or 40.3 percent, of the foreign-born population in Mississippi were citizens, compared to 16,098 residents, or 40.3 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was citizens in 2000, and 42.0 percent in 2006

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

Mississippi has received 280 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06) including six persons in FY’06.

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS) assistance funding for FY'02 $75,000 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Mississippi based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering about 200 refugees. This allocation does not include a larger share (55%) of funding programs for communities heavily affected by recent Cuban and Haitian entrants, communities with refugees whose cultural differences make assimilation especially difficult, communities impacted by federal welfare reform changes, educational support to schools with significant refugee students, and discretionary grants. ORR grants for FY’05 and FY’06 respectively were $1,314,945 and $1,691,992

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS

Data are not available nationally on immigrant students (either legally or illegally resident in the United States) who are enrolled in primary and secondary schools (K-12). However, many of these students are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency/English Language Learning (LEP/ELL) instruction programs. Many may be U.S.-born, but the majority of these students may be assumed to be either immigrants or the children of immigrants, with the exception being areas with native Americans who speak a native language other than English.

In Mississippi, overall enrollment in 2002 (491,686) was 11.6 percent below enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (2,904 - 0.6% of all enrollment) was 9.9 percent lower than a decade earlier.

Data on enrollment in LEP/ELL programs are collected by the federal government from school systems that receive Title VII funds for these special instruction programs. The data on LEP/ELL enrollment are understated because data from private schools that do not apply for Title VII assistance are sketchy.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2006/07 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in West Virginia as 2,274.

Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Mississippi from 1960-2000.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States.

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2008 is as many as 25,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 13 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated in February 2003 that the resident illegal population in Mississippi was 8,000 as of January 2000. This number more than 4,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the illegal alien population of the state at 30,000 to 50,000 as of 2005.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Incarceration Costs - Mississippi has received partial compensation under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) that was established in 1994 to compensate the states and local jurisdictions for incarceration of "undocumented," aliens who are serving time for a felony conviction or at least two misdemeanors.

The recent SCAAP amounts that Mississippi has received were:

The amount of SCAAP awards has been declining in both total distributions and even more as a share of the state’s expenses. In FY’99 the state received 38.6% of its costs for 10 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention rose more than eightfold to 83 prisoner years, while compensation increased by more than threefold but then fell steeply.

Medical Costs - Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals with emergency rooms are required to treat and stabilize patients with emergency medical needs regardless whether or not they are in the country legally or whether they are able to pay for the treatment. Congress in 2003 enacted an appropriation of $250 million per year (for 4 years) to help offset some of the costs due to use of this service by illegal aliens. This amount has been allocated among the states based upon estimates of the illegal alien population and data on the apprehension of illegal aliens in each state. This amount compensates only a fraction of the medical outlays. For Mississippi, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $190,775.

Educational Costs - In our study Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red, we estimated based on 2004 data that educational expenditures for illegal immigration were costing the Mississippi taxpayer $23.7 million dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($9.9 million) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($13.8 million).

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

You can view a listing of local immigration reform groups here.

STATE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION VOTING RECORD

You can view the voting record of your representatives in Congress regarding immigration issues in our voting report section.

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Mississippi : Immigrant Admissions

Mississippi Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
1997	1,118
1998	701
1999	698
2000	1,083
2001	1,340
2002	1,155
2003	729
2004	1,252
2005	1,831
2006	1,480
Total	11,387

Recent immigrant admissions have slightly increased by 255 percent since adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 365 immigrants. During the 2002-'06 period, admissions averaged about 1,290 immigrants.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 331 in FY'65 to 1,831 in FY'05. The cumulative total of admissions to Mississippi between fiscal years 1965 and 2002 was 33,220 immigrants.

The data for fiscal years 1989-91 were artificially raised by the inclusion of former illegal aliens who were amnestied in 1986. According to INS data (1991) the number of amnesty applicants from Mississippi was 699 (381 pre-1982 residents and 318 agricultural workers).

The data for FY'95 and FY'97-'99 were artificially low because the INS did not issue green cards to all the eligible applicants for adjustment of status who were already in the United States. In those four years, new immigration could have registered as much as 30 percent higher, if the INS had kept up with its workload.

Beginning with FY'01, the INS began to increase admissions as a result of reducing the size of the backlog of Section 245(i) adjustment of status cases, i.e., amnesty, for illegal aliens.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'93 - FY'02

The INS data below are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1993. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Wyoming during this period.

The Department of Homeland Security website has detailed data on immigrant admissions since FY’03 by year and by country. (See http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/dslpr.shtm).

The 31 nationalities above represent more than three-quarters (78.2%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Mississippi during this ten-year period. Immigrants from Vietnam, India, Mexico, China and the Philippines accounted for nearly half (47.6%) of all immigrant settlement in the state during this period.  

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Mississippi : Poll Data

A Rasmussen Report poll conducted 500 Likely Voters in Connecticut on December 12, 2007 found:

• 80% oppose granting drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.
• 87% say that when police officers pull someone over for a traffic violation, they should routinely check to see if that person is in the country legally.
• 78% believe that if an illegal immigrant is discovered in this manner, they should be

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Mississippi : Immigration Impact

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Water: Between 2000 and 2006, Mississippi's foreign-born population increased by 27.9 percent.¹ That compares with a two percent increase in the native-born population and that includes the children born to immigrants. When the U.S-born children of immigrants are included, immigration accounts for 30.5 percent of the state's overall growth during that time.² By 2050 the state's population is expected to rise from 2.9 million in 2006 to over 3.5 million.³ Mississippi has a daily, per-capita water demand of 126.2 gallons.⁴ This means that by 2050 public water usage will have increased by 75.7 million gallons each day

Overcrowded schools: Parts of Mississippi are struggling to accommodate drastically increased school enrollments. In Madison County, school enrollment has nearly doubled in the past 14 years.⁵ Madison's foreign-born population increased by 263 percent in the 1990s. In DeSoto County, where the foreign-born population increased by 579 percent in the 1990s, school enrollment rose from 15,400 in 1996 to 21,000 in 2002, a 36 percent increase in six years.⁶ DeSoto leads all Mississippi school districts in projected new student growth; the county is having to hire additional teachers and build new schools.⁷ In Olive Branch, where the foreign-born population increased by a whopping 1,406 percent during the 1990s, school enrollments are projected to increase an average of eight percent every year.⁸

Mississippi's K-12 student enrollment is projected to grow by an additional 4,000 students by the year 2015. ^{9, 10} Mississippi's student-teacher ratio of 15.7 ranks 34th in the U.S. ¹¹

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Mississippi residents increased 19 percent during the 1990s, from 21 to 25 minutes in 2000. ^{12, 13}13 percent of commuters have a commute that is 45 minutes or more. ¹⁴

Disappearing Open Space/Sprawl: Each year, Mississippi loses 41,300 acres due to development.¹⁵

Poverty: In 2005, 17.5 percent of immigrants in Mississippi had incomes below poverty level, an increase of 5.5 percent since 2000. Among foreign-born non-citizens, the poverty rate climbs to 20.4 percent.¹⁶

Crowded Housing: In 2005 over 32,000 Mississippi households were classified as crowded or severely crowded by housing authorities. ¹⁷ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born. ^{18, 19}

Solid Waste: Mississippi generates 1.02 tons of solid waste per capita. ²⁰

Air Quality: Desoto, Hancock, and Harrison counties all received a grade of "F" from the American Lung Associations "State of the Air 2005" report. Jackson and Adams counties both received a grade of "C". ²¹

Endnotes:

1. U.S. Census Bureau 2006.
2. Jack Martin. "Issue Brief: Estimation of Foreign Born Birthrate." FAIR. 2008.
3. Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel. "Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050." FAIR. March 2006.
4. U.S. Geological Survey 2000.
5. "Madison County Gets Funds to Study Increased School Enrollment," Associated Press, July 23, 2002.
6. Emily Wagster, "Mississippi Schools' Funding on Track to be Millions Short," Associated Press, March 26, 2002
7. DeSoto County Has State's Largest Increase in School Enrollment," Associated Press, August 18, 2001.
8. "School Officials Moving Ahead with Plans to Alleviate Crowding," Associated Press, April 17, 2001.
9. Projections of Education Statistics to 2015, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
10. "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
11. Ibid.
12. "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
13. "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990," 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.
14. "U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau.
15. "State Rankings by Acreage and Rate of Non-Federal Land Developed," Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
16. "Mississippi State Factsheet," Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
17. Selected Housing Characteristics:2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
18. Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded," USA Today, July 7, 2002.
19. Randy Capps, "Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families," Urban Institute, 2001.
20. Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
21. "State of the Air 2005: Mississippi", American Lung Association.

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