New Americans in Arkansas

The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the Natural State (Updated January 2012)

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Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Arkansas’s population.

• The foreign-born share of Arkansas’s population rose from 1.1% in 1990, to 2.8% in 2000, to 4.5% in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Arkansas was home to 131,667 immigrants in 2010, which is greater than the population of Springfield, Illinois.

• 27.7% of immigrants (or 36,435 people) in Arkansas were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2010—meaning that they are eligible to vote.
  

• Arkansas had the fastest-growing Latino population of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2005, and the fourth-fastest-growing immigrant population, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

More than 7% of Arkansans are Latino or Asian.

• The Latino share of Arkansas’s population grew from 0.8% in 1990, to 3.2% in 2000, to 6.3% (or 184,061 people) in 2010. The Asian share of the population grew from 0.5% in 1990, to 0.8% in 2000, to 1.1% (or 32,138 people) in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• In Arkansas, 88.2% of children with immigrant parents were U.S. citizens in 2009, according to data from the Urban Institute.

• In 2009, 91.5% of children in Asian families in Arkansas were U.S. citizens, as were 89.5% of children in Latino families.

Immigrant, Latino, and Asian entrepreneurs, consumers, and taxpayers add billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to Arkansas’s economy.

• Spending by immigrants generated $2.9 billion in Arkansas business revenues in 2004, according to a study by the Urban Institute.
  

• Immigrants (and their U.S.-born children) paid $19 million more in taxes than they consumed in education, health services, and corrections, according to the same study.

• Households headed by unauthorized immigrants in Arkansas paid $73.3 million in state and local taxes in 2010, according to data from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, which includes:

• $11.0 million in state income taxes.
• $3.0 million in property taxes.
• $59.4 million in sales taxes.

• The 2010 purchasing power of Arkansas’s Latinos totaled $3.3 billion—an increase of 1,908.2% since 1990. Asian buying power totaled $1.1 billion—an increase of 656.1% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Arkansas.

• Arkansas’s 5,436 Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $821 million and employed 4,269 people in 2007, the last year for which data is available. The state’s 3,322 Asian-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $855.7 million and employed 7,285 people in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Immigrants are integral to Arkansas’s economy as workers.

• Immigrants comprised 6.1% of the state’s workforce in 2010 (or 84,955 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

• Without immigrant workers, the state’s manufacturing industry output would be lowered by about $1.4 billion—or about 8 percent of the industry’s $16.2 billion total contribution to the gross state product in 2004, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

• Unauthorized immigrants comprised 3.0% of the state’s workforce (or 40,000 workers) in 2010, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Arkansas, the state would lose $798 million in economic activity, $354 million in gross state product, and approximately 6,660 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group.

Immigrants contribute to Arkansas’s economy as students.

• Arkansas’s 3,549 foreign students contributed $75.1 million to the state’s economy in tuition, fees, and living expenses for the 2009-2010 academic year, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Naturalized citizens excel educationally.

• In Arkansas, 23.1% of foreign-born persons who were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2009 had a bachelor’s or higher degree, compared to 11.9% of noncitizens. At the same time, only 28.9% of naturalized citizens lacked a high-school diploma, compared to 58.7% of noncitizens.

• The number of immigrants in Arkansas with a college degree increased by 47.2% between 2000 and 2009, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

• In Arkansas, 79.6% of children with immigrant parents were considered “English proficient” as of 2009.

• The English proficiency rate among Asian children in Arkansas was 87.4%, while for Latino children it was 80.5%, as of 2009.

Published On: Wed, Jan 11, 2012 | Download File