Immigrants in the United States

According to cnn there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States which make up 4 percent of the United States population. Most of the illegal immigrants come from our boarder in Mexico which is estimated to be 7million people. In a study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are 4 million children who have at least one parent who entered the United States illegally. Once here these children were born in the United States and are now U.S. citizens as a result. There are about 5.5 million children of illegal immigrants inside the United States, according the Pew study. Image is from flickr.com

The study also stated that there is an estimate of 1.8 million children of undocumented immigrants live in poverty, “among children whose parents are unauthorized immigrants, one in three is poor” (Wayne Drash, 2009). This is a very high rate for children living in poverty who are children of immigrants. Also a lot of these children have parents who are constantly working to help make a better life for them here. The study also stated that “children of illegal immigrants make up an even greater share of students in America's primary and secondary schools, with nearly 7 percent enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade” (Wayne Drash, 2009). People from all around the world come to the United States to get an education and opportunity. The Pew Hispanic research also said that children were more likely to live in a two parent household compared to the other parts of the population. The study states that the “vast majority of all children with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent live in two-parent families which is 80 percent” compared to children who had parents U.S. born being 71 percent. This information is explaining how more immigrants are willing to stay together and be depended on each other to manage rather than to just leave or divorce.

However now in our current economy why would you want to come here when companies and banks are failing? Our current unemployment rate right now is 8.5% people who are citizens and illegal are being laid off in all fields. Many people are in debt and borrowed more than they should have and it’s a big mess. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Immigrants without citizenship make up more than 5% of the United States. Immigrants are willing to take the jobs that others don’t want to do but times are now changing and many people are desperate and laid off so this (economic recession) might end up affecting more people than previously thought.