June 20, 2005
AND STILL THE OVERALL POPULATION DECLINED?:
Study: State immigrant count booming (JENNIFER FENN, 6/20/05, Lowell Sun)
If not for the tens of thousands of immigrants who have settled in Massachusetts over the past 15 years, the state's labor force would have shrunk up to 100,000 people and wreaked havoc on the economy, a new study reports.The immigrant population in Massachusetts rose by 35 percent from 1990 to 2000, according to Census data analyzed by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth. [...]
“People should be aware that we're in the midst of a major immigration boom in the state, and .... were it not for immigrants, our state's labor force would be shrinking quickly,” said Ian Bowles, president and CEO of MassINC, a public-policy think tank. “From an economic standpoint, statewide, we need this community.”
The data in the report come primarily from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. While it includes both legal and undocumented immigrants, advocates argue immigrants are drastically undercounted in the government survey and play an even more significant role in keeping the state's economy moving.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 20, 2005 11:34 PM
If these are Latinos as I suspect most are, the name of the state may be heard in churches more often every Sunday - at least the first half of it.
Posted by: obc at June 20, 2005 11:53 PMLike Europe, it seems New England need immigrants to keep its population numbers from collapsing. And maybe as with Europe, the newcomers will end up replacing the current "Christophobic" culture.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at June 21, 2005 12:29 AMOne can hope that this will be a harbinger of Catholic immigrants to Massachusetts who do not feel obligated to deify that group of drunken, over-sexed lowlives known as Kennedys.
Posted by: bart at June 21, 2005 8:18 AM