Reader Poll: Are You an Immigrant?
May 1: About 35 people were arrested in front of The White House as they protested the recently passed Arizona immigration law. (Luis Gomez Photos)
We thought it would be interesting to see what percentage of Borderstan readers are immigrants. Immigration is back in the news cycle after Arizona passed a law related to illegal immigrants in late April, which led to protests near The White House on Saturday. Moreover, Congress may address immigration reform this year, and yesterday the DC Council weighed in on the Arizona law.
Our neighborhood is a diverse section of a diverse city that is part of a diverse metro area in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and national origin. In addition, part of the region’s diversity lies in its large immigrant population with the DC metro area being a preferred U.S. destination for immigrants.
A 2006 estimate put the number of immigrants at one million in a metro-area population of 5.1 million, almost 20%. In DC, there are an estimated 75,000 immigrants out of 600,000 people, about 13%. These numbers compare to the U.S. population where a 2007 estimate put the number of foreign-born at 37 million, about 12% percent of the population.
The poll is below the fold.
