Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
(USA Today)—Slowing Hispanic immigration and birth rates are shifting the USA’s growth toward Asians, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
For the second straight year, net immigration by Asians topped that of Hispanics, the agency reported. About 338,000 Asians immigrated to the USA in the 12 months ending July 1, 2013, up about 68% since the recession of 2007-09. About 244,000 Hispanics immigrated in that 12-month period, down about 60% from a peak that occurred in 2005-06, according to demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
“The Hispanic decline clearly has to do with the recession and its aftermath,” Frey said. “The jobs that many Hispanic workers take are exactly the kind of jobs that have been slow to come back — construction, retail, service workers.”
Stricter enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border also played a role, he said.