Asian immigrants are beginning to account for a much larger share of the immigrant mothers giving birth in the US. This shows that the landscape is changing with regard to immigrants in the US, as the growth of the Asian demographic continues to outmatch that of Latinos.
Data released on Wednesday, by the Pew Research Center, shows that 22 percent of immigrant births in the US are by Asian women. This is a six percent rise, from 16 percent back in 2010. Latin American immigrants are also having fewer children, falling from 64 percent in 2008 to 54 percent in 2014. Around seven percent of all the births in the US are by undocumented immigrants.
The report also found that immigrants are the driving force behind new births in the US. The number of American women giving birth in 2014 dropped by 11 percent from those in 1970, while the number of births from immigrant women has tripled. Demographers believe that immigrants are vital to growth in the US, with fewer children born to American women and higher birth rates, in comparison, held by immigrant women.
Senior fellow, William Frey, with the Brookings Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program, says that the US is, and will continue to depend, on immigrants and their children to grow the nation’s population. He added that the lower birth rate that would exist without immigrants would cause problems in the future due to an ageing populace.