STATE POPULATION
The Census Bureau estimated that in July 2007 Alaska’s population had increased by an annual average of about 7,745 residents since 2000 (to 683,478 residents). Over that period, net immigration was adding 580 persons each year (more immigrants arriving than leaving). During the same period there was an annual average population loss of about 700 residents from net domestic migration (more native-born residents leaving than arriving). Net immigrant settlement accounted for about one-thirteenth (7.5%) 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.

 

The 2000 population is about 26,000 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.

Alaska had the 4th highest rate of population increase in the country between 1960-2000.

Between the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, the overall population of Alaska rose by 36.9 percent (401,851 to 550,043 residents).

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

FAIR estimates that the foreign-born population of Alaska was about 48,635 residents in July 2007. This meant a foreign-born population share of 7.1 percent. The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 1,570 people, which is more than one-fifth (20.3%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 30.8 percent compared to a 7.6 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 14.2 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 1,460 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for adding nearly 3,030 persons to the state’s population annually, i.e., nearly two-fifths (39.1%) of the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census recorded 37,170 foreign-born residents in the state. That was 5.9 percent of the state's overall population and an increase of 49.8 percent above the 1990 foreign-born population of 24,814 residents. That increase of nearly half again the immigrant population of ten-years earlier was much higher than the 12.3 percent increase in the native-born population. The rate of increase in the immigrant population was lower than the national average (57.4%).

A comparison of the increase in the immigrant population from 1990 with the change in the overall population during the same period shows that immigrant settlement directly accounted for 16.1 percent of the state's overall population increase over that decade. The share of the population increase due to immigration would be still higher if the children of the immigrants born here after their arrival were 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 27 percent of the state's population increase, based on the increase in the share of those in Alaska who speak a language other than English at home.

The 2000 Census found that 39.7 percent of Alaska's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, but it is a lower 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 Alaska dropped slightly from 12.1 percent to 11.6 percent. Fewer than two-fifths (37.3%) of those who said they spoke a language other than English at home in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that in 2006, the state’s foreign born population was 47,066, an increase of 26.6.2% percent since 2000. In comparison, the foreign-born population changed from 24,814to 37,170 residents between 1990 and 2000, an increase of 49.8 percent.

The ten countries below constituted 67.5% of the foreign-born population in Alaska in 2006. The Philippines accounted for 27.7% alone.   

CONNECT TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION ADMISSION DATA

THE IMMIGRANT STOCK
The Census Bureau estimates that there were about 83,000 people in Alaska in 1997 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 626,932, the immigrant stock share of the state's population was 13.2 percent.

As the graph below shows, the amount and share of Alaska’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 50,700 people to the population. Over this period, the increase in the foreign stock has accounted for 14.3 percent of the state’s population increase.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 22,414 residents, or 47.6 percent, of the foreign-born population in Alaska were citizens, compared to 20,011 residents, or 53.8 percent, in 2000.

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

Refugee Settlement
Alaska has received 373 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'97-'06) including 25 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 Alaska based on a three-year refugee settlement program covering 115 refugees (an average of $652 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 $135,682 and $272,190.

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 who come from non-English-speaking countries are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency/English Language Learning (LEP/ELL) instruction programs. 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. A few of these LEP students may be U.S.-born, but it is likely that nearly all of these students are foreign-born, and most probably are illegal residents.

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 Alaska as 452. Below, a chart illustrates the sharp increase of foreign students attending school in Alaska from 1960-2007.

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

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR Estimate - FAIR’s estimate of the state’s illegal alien population as of 2007 is about 10,000 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 Alaska was 5,000 as of January 2000. This number was 1,300 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.

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

COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Incarceration Costs -Alaska 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 Alaska 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 97 prisoner years of detention. By FY’02, the state’s reported illegal alien detention had decreased to 64 prisoner years, or 34 percent, while compensation fell by 76 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 Alaska, the proposed payment in fiscal year 2004 is $119,235

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 Alaskan taxpayer $27 million dollars annually. This cost was partially for educating students who were themselves illegally in the country ($11.3 million) and in part for the education of their siblings born in the United States to illegal residents ($15.8 million).

Projected Fiscal Costs - In 2006 we estimated that Alaskan taxpayers are currently burdened with annual costs of about $31 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 $54 million per year in 2010 and to $94 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 look up the voting record of your representatives in Congress regarding immigration issues in our voting report section.

Revised July 2008