STATE POPULATION
The Census Bureau estimated that in July 2007 Alabama’s population had increased by an annual average of about 24,725 residents since 2000 (to 4,627,851 residents). Over that period, net immigration was adding 4,200 persons each year (more immigrants arriving than leaving). During the same period there was an annual average population gain of about 8,200 residents from net domestic migration (more native-born residents arriving than leaving). Net immigrant settlement accounted for more than one-sixth (17%) of the population increase over this period, and that does not include the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of Alabama was about 136,760 residents in July 2007. This meant a foreign-born population share of 3.0 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 6,710 people, which is more than one-fourth (27.1%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 55.8 percent compared to a three 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 six percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 3,695 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for adding nearly 10,400 persons to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than two-fifths (42%) of the state’s overall population increase.

A comparison of the increase in the immigrant population since 1990 with the change in the overall population during the same period shows that immigrant settlement directly accounted for 10.9 percent of the state's overall population increase over that decade. The effect of immigration on population change is still greater when the children of the immigrants born here after their arrival are included with their immigrant parents in the calculation. The amount of the overall impact of immigration (immigrants plus their children) on population change is more likely to account for about 14 percent of the state's population increase, based on the increase in the share of those in Alabama who speak a language other than English at home. The 2000 Census found that 53.6 percent of Alabama's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is much higher than the national average (43.7%). Over a third (37%) of the state's foreign-born population in 1990 had arrived since 1980.

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 Alabama increased slightly from 2.9 percent to 3.3 percent. About two-fifths (39.3%) 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 Alabama in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	89,730
German	14,890
French	13,410
Chinese	4,655
Vietnamese	4,560
Korean	4,030
Arabic	2,620
Japanese	2,200
Italian	2,160
Tagalog	1,700
(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 130,049 residents, an increase of 48.2 percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 43,533 to 87,772 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 101.6 percent.

The ten countries below constituted 62% of the foreign-born population in Alabama in 2006. Mexico accounted for 30.1% alone, but in 1990 was not in the top ten

Between the 2000 Census and the Census Bureau estimate for 2006, the foreign-born population in Alabama increased by more than 42,000 persons (48.2%). Latin America (including Mexico) accounted for an additional 26,000 immigrants (up 74.3%). Mexico alone accounted for nearly 16,000 additional immigrants (up 67.9%). Immigrants from Asia grew by 52.8% (nearly 14,000 people). Immigrants from Africa grew by 59% (about 2,500). The immigrant population from Europe and Canada declined by about 500 persons (-2.2%).

CONNECT TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION ADMISSION DATA

CONNECT TO STATE OPINION POLL DATA

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK
The Census Bureau estimates that there were about 136,000 people in Alabama 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 4,447,100, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 3.1 percent.

As the graph below shows, the amount of Alabama’s population change due to the increase in the foreign stock is rising rapidly. Over the past 34 years the new immigrants and children born to them have added about 123,200 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 11.4 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION
Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 40,583 residents, or 31.2 percent, of the foreign-born population in Alabama were citizens, compared to 32,200 residents, or 36.7 percent, in 2000.

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

REFUGEE SETTLEMENT
Alabama has received 1,327 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06) including 57 in FY'06. This is an average of about 133 refugees per year

Under the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (HHS/ORR) assistance funding for FY'02 $106,915 is available for refugee employment training and other services programs in Alabama based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 426 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 $143,557 and $183,596.

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 Alabama, overall enrollment in 2004 (729,100) was 1.1 percent above enrollment in 1995. By contrast, LEP enrollment was 236 percent higher 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 Alabama as 6,933. One school in Alabama is listed as having a major concentration of these students:  University of Alabama had enrollment of 1,011 foreign students, 6.1% of total enrollment. Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Alabama from 1960-2007.

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

ILLEGAL ALIENS

COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
Incarceration Costs Alabama 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 Alabama has received were:

FY’99—$450,037
FY’00—$384,085
FY’01—$334,000
FY’02—$317,951
FY’03—$109,487
FY’04—$71,952

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 122.7 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention had risen by more than half to 186 prisoner years, while compensation decreased by 29 percent. 

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 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 Alabama, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $572,326.  

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 Alabama taxpayer $82.5 million dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($34.4 million) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($48.1 million).

Projected Fiscal Costs - In 2006 we estimated that Alabama taxpayers are currently burdened with annual costs of about $112 million because of illegal aliens residing in the state. That estimate was based on only expenditures for education, emergency medical care and incarceration. We projected that those costs will rise unless we gain control over our borders and our worksites. If a new amnesty and increases in immigrants and guest workers were enacted, as proposed by business and ethnic advocacy groups, we project that the cost to the state’s taxpayers for those same programs would rise to $195 million per year in 2010 and to $346 million per year in 2020.

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

Revised July 2008