More Asian, less Latino is the nickel summary.
Lloyd Potter
The number of Latin Americans moving to Texas from abroad and other states has dropped by almost a quarter as the amount of Asians coming here doubled, offsetting the decline and echoing national trends, according to a report released [recently] by the state demographer’s office.
Nearly 93,000 people with Latin-American origins settled in the Lone Star state in 2013, compared to more than 122,000 in 2005, the data shows. Their arrivals have decreased nearly every year. In contrast, more than 85,500 foreign-born Asians moved to Texas in 2013, the most ever, compared to just more than 41, 830 in 2005. The shift is historic, said state demographer Lloyd Potter.
“Our narrative in Texas on immigration is on migration from Mexico, both legal and illegal,” he said. “With Asian immigration and Latin American immigration, there is an income, educational and skill differential. That shift is certainly an interesting and significant one.”
Asians are more likely to come here on work visas and hold advanced degrees, for example, he said.
The findings are on pace with a national report released last month by the Pew Research Center, a think tank in Washington D.C., showing that Asians are expected to become the country’s largest immigrant group in the next 50 years, eclipsing Hispanics for the first time. They are projected to make up more than a third of the U.S. foreign-born population by 2065, though Latinos will remain the largest ethnic group.
In all, the state demographer’s report found Texas is more international than at any time since its statehood in 1845, with one out of six Texans born in a foreign country.
The full report is here – it’s from October, and I just hadn’t gotten around to publishing this post before now – and as the story notes this is in line with national trends. In fact, at this time there is net negative migration from Mexico – more people move there from here than move here from there. Not that this will do anything to dampen our “border security” fetish, because we’re just stupid that way. And for what it’s worth, Asian voters have trended heavily Democratic of late, though we’re a long way from that making any difference outside a handful of legislative districts. But if you want to know what Texas will look like in another 10 or 20 years, go read that report.
“Not that this will do anything to dampen our “border security” fetish, because we’re just stupid that way.”
Every time my property tax skyrockets, and every time my health insurance rises (over doubled in 6 years, BTW) because I am paying for more social services for illegal aliens and more law enforcement to deal with illegal aliens, I’ll remember that I’m just stupid that way to want to reduce those costs by keeping out people who don’t belong here, people who are here to sponge off of the taxpayers.
You just ignored the citations I gave you that showed that immigration does the opposite of what you’re suggesting, didn’t you, Bill?
Your nativist narratives have no basis in fact.
How much has your property tax “skyrocketed” in recent years Bill? How much more are you paying for “more law enforcement to deal with illegal aliens” too? I agree we should not let illegals stay here, nor should we provide them with services, but I’d rather we figure out how to address the problem realistically without the twisted statistics both sides use to bolster claims.
Steve:
Since I just paid the property tax, the sting is still quite fresh, and the tax people conveniently go back 5 years on the statement, so you can see exactly how much more you have paid, vs. the prior 4 years. Since 2010, I’m paying almost 25% more for the same house. Something to keep in mind is, I am religious about protesting the appraisal, so most of my neighbors have had even greater increases in their property taxes.
@Robbie:
I did read your cites back in the other thread, but frankly, it doesn’t jive with what I see firsthand, every day. A quick visit to any county hospital will confirm my anecdotal observations. Even IF an illegal breadwinner is having taxes withheld, after claiming 22 dependents, there is no actual tax paid, and the “refund” more than covers any SS or Medicare taxes withheld. As far as property tax, I’ll grant that their landlords are paying property taxes on the units occupied by illegals, but those taxes aren’t going to cover the costs of social services provided to the illegals and to their American born offspring.
While I agree that the American born offspring should improve their financial situation in subsequent generations, and should become contributing taxpaying Americans, the illegals coming now to have their $ 20,000 anchor children at LBJ or Ben Taub are a drain on limited resources, right now, today.
Bill, mine have been flat until last year, all the fighting in the world not helping when similar houses had been selling for wayyyyyy more than they had in years. It will take some catching up thanks to the 10% cap on my homestead but in the bigger picture, this is what we get when we rely so heavily on property taxes to pay for everything. Still, I think the amounts in question fall well short of “skyrocketing” and if we could figure out how much was attributable to illegals (especially “net”), I just don’t think it is nearly as much as some are claiming. That doesn’t mean I care to spend a penny more than needed, just that it isn’t a huge amount per person so we should do something about it but not go crazy.