Montana

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2008 CB estimate.):	967,440
Population (2000 Census):	902,195
Foreign-Born Population (2008 FAIR estimate):	18,275
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	16,396
Share Foreign-Born (2008 FAIR est):	1.9%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	1.8%
Immigrant Stock (2000 CB estimate):	64,000
Share Immigrant Share (2000 estimate):	7.1%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2006 Census):	8,948
Share Naturalized (2006):	51.1%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	4,352
Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2006):	143
Illegal Alien Population (2008 INS estiamte):	5,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR)	1,139,676

Montana: Extended Immigration Data

STATE POPULATION

The Using the Current Population Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2008 Montana’s population had increased to 967,440 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 7,860 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.9 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 2,180 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 260 residents, i.e., a small share (3.3%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

Montana Sources of Population Change 2000-08

The 2000 Census found 902,195 persons resident in Montana. This was an increase of 103,130 persons above the 1990 Census. The rate of increase (12.9%) was the 20^th highest in the country.

The 2000 population is about 48,000 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 Montana was 17,807 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 Montana was about 18,275 residents in July 2008. This meant a foreign-born population share of 1.9 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 225 people, which is a small share (2.9%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 11.5 percent compared to a 7.2 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 3.8 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 440 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 665 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., less than one-tenth (8.5%) of the state’s overall population increase.

Montana Foreign Born Popualtion 1970-2008

The 2000 Census found that 29 percent of Montana's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This was a much smaller share than the national average (43.7%) and suggests that Montana is still fairly untouched by the mass immigration affecting most of the country.

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 Montana decreased slightly, from five percent to 4.8 percent. Slightly more than one-quarter (28.6%) 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 Montana in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	12,955
German	9,415
Crow	3,925
French	3,285
Cheyenne	1,195
Blackfoot	1,070
Dakota	995
Norwegian	915
Italian	760
Cree	750
(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 17,512 residents, an increase of 6.8 percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 13,779 to 16,396 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 19 percent.

The ten countries below constituted 62.9% of the foreign-born population in Montana in 2006. Canada accounted for nearly a quarter (23.5%) alone.

Foreign-Born Change Since 1990: Top Ten Countries 1990-2006
Rank	Country	1980	Country	1990	Country	2006
1	Canada	3,929	Canada	4,550	Canada	4,113
2	Germany	1,381	Germany	1,750	Germany	1,600
3	United Kingdom	1,131	United Kingdom	1,205	Mexico	1,396
4	Mexico	511	Mexico	880	Korea	1,008
5	Philip.	414	Soviet Union	753	England	870
6	Japan	404	Korea	770	Philippines	643
7	Norway	392	Philipines	502	United Kingdom	447
8	Sov.Un.	381	Japan	424	Japan	404
9	Neth.	302	China	394	China	266
10	Sweden	276	India	253	Vietnam	262
	All Others	4,652	All Others	4,915	All Others	6,503
	Total	13,779	Total	16,396	Total	11,009

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK

The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 64,000 people in Montana 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 the population of 902,195, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 7.1 percent.

As the graph below shows, the amount of Montana’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 20,000 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 8.7 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 8,948 residents, or 51.1 percent, of the foreign-born population in Montana were citizens, compared to 9,482 residents, or 57.8 percent, in 2000.

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

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

Montana has received 143 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06), but none in FY’06.

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $75,000 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Montana based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering about 25 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 $139,945 and $143,623

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 Montana, overall enrollment in 2002 (151,970) was 9.4 percent below enrollment in 1993. By contrast, LEP enrollment (7,567 - 5% of all enrollment) was 3.2 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 Montana as 958. Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Montana from 1960-2000.

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population as of 2008 is as many as 5,000 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 Montana was 2,250 as of January 2000. This number more than 1,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.

Other Estimates - The Name Pew Name Hispanic Type Center estimates the illegal alien population of the state at less than 10,000 as of 2005.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Incarceration Costs - Montana 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 Montana has received were:

FY’99	—	$47,007
FY’00	—	$25,875
FY’01	—	$63,184
FY’02	—	$43,225
FY’03	—	$28,201
FY’04	—	$2,792

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 7 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention nearly doubled to 13 prisoner years, while compensation fell slightly and then fell sharply.

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 Montana, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $11,923.

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 taxpayers in Montana and seven other states $29.8 million dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($12.4 million) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($17.4 million).

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

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

STATE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION VOTING RECORD

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

Montana: Immigrant Admissions

Montana Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
1997	375
1998	299
1999	309
2000	493
2001	488
2002	422
2003	453
2004	419
2005	589
2006	505
Total	4,352

Recent immigrant admissions have slightly increased by 21 percent since adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 395 immigrants. During the 2002-'06 period, admissions averaged about 480 immigrants.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 299 in FY'98 to 638 in FY'81. The cumulative total of admissions to Montana between fiscal years 1965 and 2002 was 17,685 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 Montana was 235 (95 pre-1982 residents and 140 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 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).

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Country	FY'93	FY'94	FY'95	FY'96	FY'97	FY'98	FY'99	FY'00	FY'01	FY'02	Total
Bangladesh	-	-	-	0	0	1	0	0	-	0	1
Canada	125	112	104	102	80	40	53	112	116	96	940
China *	79	42	22	29	34	44	29	27	37	31	374
Colombia	3	2	3	6	9	3	3	6	9	14	58
Cuba	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2
Dom. Rep.	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	4	2	0	8
Ecuador	1	-	0	1	0	1	1	0	2	0	6
El Salvador	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	5
Germany	25	22	14	-	21	18	4	14	13	18	149
Guatemala	1	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	7	4	20
Guyana	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	-	0	2
Haiti	3	1	1	4	4	2	0	2	1	1	19
Honduras	2	-	-	-	0	1	0	0	-	2	5
India	10	5	16	15	13	8	9	11	15	9	111
Iran	0	4	1	4	4	4	1	2	2	0	22
Ireland	2	13	-	-	1	6	0	1	-	0	23
Jamaica	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	8
Japan	-	7	-	-	4	6	4	12	9	12	54
Korea	28	26	32	9	8	4	9	7	6	2	131
Mexico	12	10	11	15	20	21	36	44	30	24	223
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	0	0	0	4	1	0	5
Nigeria	-	-	1	2	0	2	2	1	-	0	8
Pakistan	2	0	0	1	5	0	1	0	1	1	11
Peru	2	0	3	2	2	4	0	3	5	10	31
Philippines	41	25	40	30	33	17	20	39	20	24	289
Poland	2	2	6	2	4	1	2	4	5	2	30
Sov. Un. *	47	48	18	55	22	26	40	54	49	51	410
Trin.& Tob.	-	0	-	-	1	0	0	1	-	0	2
U. Kingdom	16	34	24	17	11	15	16	20	19	12	184
Vietnam	7	5	2	0	6	6	4	2	7	7	46
Yugo. *	-	-	0	1	4	2	5	4	0	2	18
Other	100	84	110	153	85	63	66	115	131	98	1,005
Total	509	447	409	449	375	299	309	493	488	422	4,200

A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year were not published for that country in the INS Statistical Yearbook.
* China data include Hong Kong and Taiwan. Former USSR data continued since break-up (except FY'96-'97 and ‘01 include only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent more than three-quarters (76.1%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Montana during this ten-year period. Immigrants from Canada accounted for more than one-fifth (20.4%) of all immigrant admissions during the period. When immigrants from Mexico, former Soviet Union, China and the Philippines are added to those from Canada, they account for over half (51.3%) of all immigrant settlement in the state since 1993.

Montana : Poll Data

Rasmussen Poll: Arizona Law SB 1070
July 2010

Suppose the new Arizona immigration law was being considered for your state. Would you favor or oppose passage of that law in your state?

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court. Do you agree or disagree with the decision to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law?

A Montana State University- Billings poll taken from October 10-12 and 14-15, 2006 of 409 likely voters found that:

68% believe that the government is not doing enough to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States.
68% disagree with illegal immigrants being granted amnesty.

Montana: Immigration Impact

ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE PROFILE

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Montana residents increased 15 percent during the 1990s, from 15 minutes to 17.3 minutes in 2005 ^{1, 2}

7 percent of commuters have a commute that is 45 minutes or more. ³

Disappearing open space: Each year, Montanaloses 15,300 acres of open space and farmland due to development.⁴

The endangered grizzly bear makes its home in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas. However, the Sierra Club has noted that the fastest growing threat to grizzly bear habitat is development in communities near Yellowstone.⁵ In fact, Yellowstone National Park now ranks as one of the most endangered national parks, according to the National Park and Conservation Association.⁶

The potential for development could decimate bird population, according to Montana State University researchers.⁷

Crowded housing: Over 7,000 Montanahouseholds are defined as crowded or severely crowded. ⁸ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.^{9, 10}

Poverty: In 2005 13.9 percent of immigrants in Montanahad incomes below the poverty level.¹¹

Education: Between 1990 and 2000, Montana's elementary and high school enrollment increased nine percent.¹² Between 2002 and 2012, public school enrollment is expected to increase six percent, to 164,000.¹³

One local school has become so overcrowded that a makeshift classroom has been set up on the school's stage. The school district's manager notes that "one of the things Canyon Creek has a tradition of is small classroom sizes, and we aren't able to do that now".¹⁴

Endnotes:

Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990 and 2000, Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
Selected Social Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
"U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau.
"State Rankings by Acreage and Rate of Non-Federal Land Developed," Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
"Sierra Club Says Rapid Growth Top Threat to Grizzly Bear Habitat," Associated Press, November 23, 1999.
H. Josef Herbert, "Groups Labels 10 Federal Parts the Most ‘Endangered,'" Associated Press, April 6, 2000.
Brandon Loomis, "Big Sky Still Plentiful in Montana, But Solitude Becomes Harder to Find," Salt Lake Tribune, March 9, 2001.
Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded," USA Today, July 7, 2002.
Randy Capps, "Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families," Urban Institute, 2001.
"Montana State Factsheet," Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990 and 2000, Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
"Table 4 — Enrollment in Grades K-12 in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, by Region and State, With Projections: Fall 1994 to Fall 2012," National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core Data, U.S. Department of Education.
Susan Olp, "Out of Space," Billings Gazette, October 14, 2001.

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