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! Metro population: 3,322,025 (1990 Census) !
! 3,792,000 (1996 CPS) !
! Foreign-born population: 439,389 (1990 Census) !
! Percent foreign born: 13.2% (1990 Census) !
! New legal immigrants: 187,413 (1991 to 1998) !
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INS DATA ON NEW LEGAL IMMIGRANTS 1991-1998
The Houston MSA is the sixth greatest magnet in the country for new immigrants (after LA and
NYC, Chicago, Miami, and Orange County). The Houston PMSA (Chambers, Fort Bend, Harris,
Liberty, Montgomery and Waller Counties) accounted for the largest number of Texas' legal
immigrant settlement recorded by the INS since the 1990 Census. The average annual number of immigrant settlement in Houston has been over 23,000.
The legal immigrant settlement data during this period was influenced by adjustment of status of a large number of immigrants who had been in illegal status until the amnesty that was adopted in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). This IRCA adjustment data -- which was still at the surge level in FY-91, affected immigrant settlement data in the Houston metro area, with an extra about 25,000 legalizations (mostly Mexicans). Just among the long-term resident amnesty applicants (excluding the amnestied agricultural workers), the number of applicants from the Houston metro area numbered 99,592. The data for FY'95, FY'97 and FY'98 were artificially low because the INS was not able to issue green cards to all the applicants for adjustment of status who were already in the United States. In those three years, new immigration could have registered as much as 30 percent higher, if the INS had issued more green cards.
ANNUAL TOTAL IMMIGRATION BY FISCAL YEAR: 1991-98
Listed below are the overall total legal immigrant admissions and adjustments for each of the eight
years since the 1990 Census. Also available is the year-by-year breakdown of the major
nationalities of the new immigrants and the cumulitive nationality data for FY'91-'96.
FISCAL YEAR NUMBER OF ADMISSIONS BY NATIONALITY 1991 53,690 FY-91 1992 27,101 FY-92 1993 22,634 FY-93 1994 17,600 FY-94 1995 14,379 FY-95 1996 21,387 FY-96 1997 17,439 1998 13,183 Total 187,413
INS DATA ON FY'91-96 IMMIGRANT SETTLEMENT BY NATIONALITY
The following data are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of
immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal U.S. residence in the Houston metro area.
The absence of data for a country simply means that the total number of admissions
to the United States by nationals of that country were not enough to merit detailed reporting.
Bangladesh 340 Canada 1,597 China * 8,353 Colombia 1,940 Cuba 272 Dominican R. 380 Ecuador 268 El Salvador 15,528 Guatemala 1,973 Guyana 213 Haiti 171 Honduras *** 1,066 India 7,270 Iran 1,772 Ireland ** 241 Jamaica 592 Korea 1,198 Mexico 64,497 Nicaragua ** 602 Nigeria *** 1,059 Pakistan 3,659 Peru 804 Philippines 4,565 Poland 295 Soviet Union **** 1,346 United K. 2,123 Vietnam 15,240 Other 19,188 Total 156,791 * Includes Hong Kong and Taiwan when available. ** data available for only three years. *** data available for only two years. **** Includes Russia and Ukraine data only for FY'96.
1997 CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY (CPS) DATA
According to the 1997 CPS, Houston's metropolitan area population increased by over half a
million (16%) since
1990. This was due to the natural increase (births-deaths) and the continuing influx of new
immigrants (31.5% of the increase), as well as a slight net in-migration of residents from
elsewhere.
