Immigration Impact - Virginia

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.fairus.org/Research/Research.cfm?ID=1508&c=9

Immigration Impact - Virginia






State Population 7,078,515
Population Increase 1990-2000 891,157
Foreign-Born Population 570,279
Percent Foreign-Born 8.1%
Illegal Resident Population 100,0001
2025 Population Projection 8,466,000
All numbers are from the U.S. Census Bureau unless otherwise noted.
Additional Census Bureau, INS, and other immigration-related data are available for Virginia.


Immigration-driven population growth is taking its toll on Virginia. In the last ten years, over 891,000 new residents settled in Virginia. Twenty-nine percent of these new residents were immigrants. This large-scale population growth is causing serious problems for the state?s infrastructure and environment, particularly in northern Virginia?s suburbs, where costs and social burdens have risen. In Fairfax County, where the foreign-born population grew by 86 percent during the 1990s and is now 25 percent of the total county population, the poverty rate rose by 54 percent. The number of people over age 25 with less than a ninth-grade education grew by 58 percent.2

Profile in Numbers
Population Growth
Virginia?s population increased by 14 percent between 1990 and 2000, bringing its total population to seven million. Virginia?s population has increased 52 percent since 1970 and 78 percent since 1960.

Loudon was the sixth fastest growing county in the U.S. during the 1990s.


Virginia?s foreign-born population increased 83 percent between 1990 and 2000. During that period, Virginia gained over 258,000 immigrants, bringing the total number of foreign-born residents in the state to over 570,000.

This increase in the foreign-born population accounted for 29 percent of the state?s overall population increase during the decade. Foreign-born residents now account for 8 percent of the total state population. Additionally, about 859,000 people in Virginia are immigrants or the children of immigrants, or about 13 percent of the state?s population.3

Immigration and Your Community
FAIR has immigration data for local communities in Virginia as well. See our full listing of pages about Virginia for information about your locality.
Trends for the Future
The Census Bureau?s middle series projection estimates that Virginia?s population will increase by 21 percent between 2000 and 2025, to 8,466,000 million. 4

Impact on Environment and Quality of Life
Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Virginia residents increased 13 percent during the 1990s, to 27 minutes in 2000.5,6 Within the next 20 years, Northern Virginia?s increase in population will be two to three times greater than the planned increase in highway capacity, according to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.7

Disappearing Open Space: About 62,000 acres were developed in the Richmond region from 1982 to 1992?a developed area one and a half times the size of the city itself. Forty-seven percent of the farmland in the Richmond metro area disappeared from 1959 to 1992. At that rate, 86 percent of the farmland from 1959 would be gone by 2020.8

Sprawl: In the Richmond region, land was developed twice as fast from 1992 to 1997 as in the previous decade?from an average of 5,830 acres a year to 11,760 acres a year. The development rate increased 42 percent in Hampton Roads (which developed 43,300 acres from1992 to 1997) and 3 percent in northern Virginia (which developed 49,300 acres).9

Water: The 343,300 acres developed to keep up with the population increase in the Washington, D.C. metro area (which includes many Virginia suburbs) from 1982 to 1997 send an additional 23.8 billion to 55.6 billion gallons of polluted runoff into lakes, streams, and rivers each year.10

Lack of Affordable Housing: As population rises, the housing supply often can?t keep up with the demand, causing prices to rise sharply. In northern Virginia, tight housing markets have kept prices beyond the reach of many blue-collar workers. Programs that require developers to build affordable housing into their projects have been stymied by efforts to restrict development in order to stop sprawl.11

The number of households requesting governmental rental subsidies has grown by thousands in each of northern Virginia?s major jurisdictions in recent years. In Loudoun, the waiting list tripled. Fairfax County, where the average rent rose 40 percent in the last four years, reported a 25 percent increase in homelessness during the same period.12

In 2000, 28 percent of renters paid 35 percent or more of their household income in rent (considered excessive by social agencies).13

Crowded Housing: Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign-born.14,15 34,000 Virginia households are defined as severely crowded housing, a 64 percent increase since 1990.16,17 High immigrant concentrations in Fairfax County have led to massive crowding and plagued once-quiet neighborhoods. ?People live in a great neighborhood, and the next day, 14 unrelated people move in, with inadequate bathroom facilities,? says Virginia Senator Leslie Byrne. Byrne, whose office has been deluged with complaints about overcrowding, says it is harming this harms property values and putting public health at risk.18

Immigration and School Overcrowding
Between 1990 and 2000, Virginia?s elementary and high school enrollment increased 20 percent.19 In Northern Virginia, the constant influx of students makes it difficult to meet desirable student-teacher ratios, and experts attribute the increase in large part to an influx of immigrants.20 Funds for school construction and renovation have not kept up with the growth in the Fairfax County?s student population?up 20,000 since 1995. The county already uses 784 trailers; by 2005, when enrollment will have increased by 11,000 additional students, the county will be short the equivalent of 21 elementary schools and five middle schools.21 Stafford county had had to ask the state for emergency funds to hire additional teachers to accommodate the hundreds more students than were expected.22 In Chesapeake, ?no space is available at the elementary school, middle school, or high school.?23

Illegal Residents:
Over 100,000 illegal aliens are living in Virginia, estimates the Migration Policy Institute.24 This is an increase of 45,000, or 82 percent, since 1996 and an increase of 58,000, or 138 percent, since 1992.

Experts say that northern Virginia, with its thriving service economy and surging communities of legal immigrants, has become a magnet for illegal aliens.25 Eighty percent of the state?s illegal residents live in northern Virginia.26

Before September 11, Virginia?s lax driver?s licensing procedures caused a stream of illegal aliens into the state. After the terrorist attacks, the state tightened its identity and residency requirements and will no longer accept passports with expired visas.27

Virginia estimates it spends $56 million per year on illegal aliens in schools.28 Virginia?s Medicaid program spent $3.4 million on illegal aliens in 1997, the latest year for which figures are available.29

Virginia authorities requested $8.9 million in compensation from the federal government in FY?99 for the incarceration of illegal aliens in state and local jails and prisons, but it received only $3.4 million in compensation, leaving $5.5 million in uncompensated costs to be borne by Virginia taxpayers.

Endnotes