Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Karina Fortuny on Fiscal and Social Impacts

This report hopes to fill some of the knowledge gaps in the current immigration debate by describing the unauthorized population nationally and in California and Los Angeles—the state and urban area with the largest numbers of these immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants numbered 2.45 million in California in 2004, representing almost one-quarter (24 percent) of the nation's total (10.3 million). There are about 1 million unauthorized immigrants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, almost twice the number of any other metro area; the unauthorized are one-tenth of the area's population (10 million). The report presents findings about these populations, including their socio-economic characteristics, such as national origin, education, employment, and poverty.

In 2004 there were about 50,000 immigrants in the Louisville metropolitan area, representing 4.5 percent of the area’s population. Louisville, like other Southeastern cities, has a relatively small but rapidly growing foreign-born population. But Louisville’s immigrants are more diverse than elsewhere in the Southeast: higher shares are from African and Asian, and a lower share from Latin America. Louisville also has a lower share of undocumented immigrants and a higher share of refugees, due to a large and successful resettlement program. Louisville’s immigrants—which make up an increasing component of the labor force in sectors such as manufacturing, retail and health care—are also relatively well educated compared to the nationwide foreign-born population. This report, sponsored by the Louisville Metro Office for International Affairs, describes characteristics and trends in the city’s international population, and makes recommendations for the future successful integration.