Children of Foreign Born Parents (2014)

Recently the Urban Institute released an article on the numbers of children with at least one foreign born parent. Below I've provided similar numbers for the state, as well as Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

The Regional Foreign-Born Self-Employed Workforce: 2014

Of the nearly 13,000 employed foreign-born workers in the Herkimer-Oneida Counties region, about 7%, or roughly 900, are self-employed. Below is a breakdown of the top 10 occupations for these foreign-born self-employed workers. You can click the graph to enlarge it.

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Because several people have asked about the "Lab Technicians" category, the actual title of the NAICS category is “Medical, Dental, and Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians”. The definition includes:

• Dental Laboratory Technicians: Construct and repair full or partial dentures or dental appliances. Excludes "Dental Assistants";
• Medical Appliance Technicians: Construct, fit, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices, such as braces, orthotics and prosthetic devices, joints, arch supports, and other surgical and medical appliances;
• Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians: Cut, grind, and polish eyeglasses, contact lenses, or other precision optical elements. Assemble and mount lenses into frames or process other optical elements. Includes precision lens polishers or grinders, centerer-edgers, and lens mounters. Excludes "Opticians, Dispensing".

Naturalization of Our Foreign Born Regional Population

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Regional College Enrolled Foreign Born Population (2012)

The Utica Observer Dispatch had an article today about the challenges facing foreign born refugees when enrolling in college. They cite several difficulties including language hurdles. In an effort to look more comprehensively at the issues brought up in the article. I've put together several graphics based on our regional foreign-born college-enrolled population.

The data comes from the 2012 Five Year ACS Estimates for our regional PUMAs. Click on any of the graphics below to enlarge them and take a closer look at this intriguing population.

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Our Changing Face of Immigration: A Regional Look at 100 Years of Foreign Born Populations

The role of international immigration for our area is something I have recently been posting about. Like the country as a whole, our communities have long been refuges for those seeking a change in their lives as they left their loved ones, their homes and their cultures to seek a new beginning in a foreign land.

The percentage of our regional population that was foreign born reached its peak in the early part of the 1900s. Around 1920 nearly 50,000 people who lived in Herkimer and Oneida Counties had been born in another country. From that decade through 1990, the area saw a continuing decline of foreign immigrants – in 1990 only around 10,000 people living here had been born abroad.  The percent of population that was foreign born went from nearly 20% in 1920 to less than 5% by 1990.

 

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European immigration had long fueled our area with new community members. From the turn of the last century through the first decade of this one, people emigrating from the “old Continent” to our region have made up the majority of those settling in Herkimer and Oneida Counties. In 1900 more than 31,000 residents were foreign born, and 90% of them came here from Europe.  In particular, the vast majority of foreign born Europeans living here in 1900 came from the northern and western countries of the continent: places like England, Ireland, France and Germany were typical “motherlands”.  Of note is that many immigrants in the area also called Italy, a part of Southern Europe, home.  

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This flow of people mainly from the Northern and Western European countries has changed in the last 100 years however. No longer are those regions contributing nearly what they once had. While Europe as a continent still is where more than 40% of our foreign born population comes from, it is no longer dominated by countries in the north and west; former residents of countries like Ukraine, Bosnia and Belarus now make up more than 70% of the Eastern Europeans that have recently migrated from that continent. So there has been both a decline in the number and percentage of Europeans immigrating to our region, as well as a change in what countries those Europeans are originating from as they have make their way to Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

If European immigration is only currently accounting for around 40% of our foreign born population, where is the rest coming from? In the past, the small percentage of non-European immigrants came from places like Canada; in the last decade, what we now see is considerable immigration from south of our border, as well as from the west, in Asia.

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In 2000 more than one in ten (12%) foreign born residents came from the Caribbean, Central America, or South America. By 2010, that percentage had climbed to around 18%. Even more noteworthy, one in five (20%) foreign born people in the region were from Asia according to the 2000 Census. In 2010, a full third (33%) of immigrants were of Asian heritage.  Combined then, more than half of the foreign born members of our communities are now from somewhere other than Europe – versus  100 years ago when 90% of international immigrants came from there.  

International migration in our region has changed considerably in the last 100 years then. We have gone from having a very Euro-centric foreign born immigrant population to one that is much more blended with Latin American, South American, Mexican and Asian cultures all competing to become the next versions of our region's proud Italian, Polish, German and other successful ethnic communities.

Top 25 Countries From Which Foreign Born Residents Come to OC

Oneida County, and specifically Utica and Rome, are centers in which foreign born residents often reside. With the Refugee Center in Utica, the last 20 years has seen the county become home to many foreign nationals.

Below you can see the Top 25 countries from which foreign born residents are coming to Oneida County.