Doing Research? : Immigration in Your Backyard
| Extended Immigration Data for Florida |
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| Summary Demographic State Data (and Source) |
| Population (2007 Census Bureau est.): |
18,251,243 |
| Population (2000 Census): |
15,982,378 |
Foreign-Born Population (2007 FAIR est.):
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census): |
3,545,445
2,670,828 |
Share Foreign-Born (2007 FAIR est.):
Share Foreign-Born (2000): |
19.4%
16.7% |
| Immigrant Stock (2000 CB est.): |
4,637,000 |
| Share Immigrant Stock (2000 est.): |
29.0% |
| Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2006 Census): |
1,549,785 |
| Share Naturalized (2006 est.): |
45.2% |
| Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 1997-2006): |
901,020 |
| Refugee Admission (DHS 1997-2006): |
140,947 |
| Illegal Alien Population (2007 FAIR est.): |
810,000 |
| Costs of Illegal Aliens - 2005 (FAIR est.) |
$1,820,000,000 |
| Projected Population - 2050 (2006 FAIR): |
33,455,308 |
MENU OF FLORIDA IMMIGRATION DATA RESOURCES
GENERAL INFORMATION
Florida has the third-largest immigrant population in the United States (after California and New York), and the fourth-largest immigrant population share of its total population (after the above two states and Hawaii). More than one of every eight of its residents is foreign born. About one in every eleven immigrants in the United States lives in Florida.
The majority of Florida's immigrants comes from the Caribbean basin. Mexico plays a minor role in this settlement pattern. The immigrant population is much more likely to be living in poverty (22.7%) than the native born (15%).
Florida receives federal assistance to help it defray the costs of the incarcerated criminal alien population in the state and to help it pay the welfare benefits that the state had to pay after the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens. However, the federal funding falls far short of the costs of immigrants to the state, which led the state to unsuccessfully sue the federal government for additional remuneration. The Supreme Court ruled that the dispute between Florida -- along with other states heavily impacted by immigration -- and the federal government is a political issue that must be settled by Congress, which is responsible for fashioning the nation's immigration laws.
Refugee Settlement
Florida has received 140,947 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06) including 5,247 persons in FY’06.
 (Note: Cuban parolees missing from FY'97 data.) Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $15,405,547 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Florida based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 61,383 refugees (an average of $251 per refugee). 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 $104,881,398 and $106,190,553.
IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
In 2000 nearly three-tenths of all of Florida's children are either foreign born or the child of an immigrant. Seven percent are first-generation immigrants (foreign born) and 21 percent are second-generation (a child of an immigrant).
(Source: "Check Points," The Urban Inst. Sept. 2, 2000)
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 Florida as 26,875. Several schools in Florida is listed as having a major concentration of these students:
University of Florida had enrollment of 3,921 foreign students, 7.7% of total enrollment.
Florida International University had enrollment of 3,271 foreign students, 8.5% of total enrollment.
University of South Florida had enrollment of 1,820 foreign students, 4.1% of total enrollment (Additional Schools)
Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Florida from 1960-2000.
For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States.
LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
You can view a listing of local immigration reform organizations 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.
Revised July 2008 |
