President Obama has vowed to keep fighting for immigration reform, while Republican leaders push for new limits on who can come and who can stay in the U.S. Here in Virginia, experts say the debate should take a very different tone, as this state’s immigrant population is like no other in the nation.
Most foreign born people in the United States came from Mexico, but here in Virginia that is not the case. Michael Cassidy is president of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. He says our immigrant population is diverse, with the top five countries of origin accounting for just 35% of those not born in the U.S.
“In Virginia it’s El Salvador, then India, and then Mexico. We have also large shares of folks in our state from the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam.”
Two thirds of them live in the suburbs of Washington D.C., with most of the others in the Richmond area or Hampton Roads. In fact, nearly one in four residents of Northern Virginia is foreign born, and more than half are citizens. Four out of five have been here at least five years, and many are in professional or business services.
“A lot of times people operate under the misconception that immigrant workers in our state are working in low-skill sectors of the economy - they are driving cabs and mowing lawns, and our analysis shows that’s simply not true.”
Cassidy says about 40% of foreign-born Virginians have at least a bachelor’s degree, and the median family income is more than $68,500 a year. While most immigrants in Virginia are here legally, he says, it’s not unusual for some members of a family to have documents while others do not.
