California's Newest Immigrants

Joseph M. Hayes, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC)

Immigration and immigrant adaptation are integral parts of California's continuing development, and immigrants are an increasing share of the state's population. In 1990, 22 percent of the state's population was foreign-born, and by 2000, this share had risen to 26 percent. Immigrants arriving in the intervening decade were slightly more likely to be from Mexico or Central America than were previous arrivals, and new immigrants from India became an important component of international migration to California. Using the PUMS, this paper compares the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of new immigrants in 2000 with those of recent immigrants to California at the time of the 1990 census, describing how the experiences of new arrivals have changed over the last decade. Later in the paper, we examine immigrants' experiences 10 to 20 years after arriving in the United States as compared to their experiences 0 to 10 years after arrival.