{"id":674,"date":"2009-04-08T07:03:05","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T13:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=674"},"modified":"2009-04-08T07:03:05","modified_gmt":"2009-04-08T13:03:05","slug":"latinos-drive-the-recent-surge-in-us-naturalizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/04\/08\/latinos-drive-the-recent-surge-in-us-naturalizations\/","title":{"rendered":"Latinos drive the recent surge in U.S. naturalizations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Liberty\"<\/a>The Houston Chronicle <\/a>reports today on new naturalization statistics indicating that Latinos are driving the recent record-level surge in United States, comprising nearly half of the one million new Americans in 2008.\u00a0 The numbers:<\/p>\n

\n

Nearly half of the record-setting 1 million new U.S. citizens sworn in last year were Latino immigrants \u2014 a 95 percent increase among that ethnic group from the previous year, according to an analysis by an Hispanic advocacy organization.<\/p>\n

Department of Homeland Security data shows the number of immigrants naturalized in the U.S. grew from about 660,000 in 2007 to more than 1 million in 2008 \u2014 an increase of roughly 58 percent. The Houston metropolitan area saw more than 28,000 naturalizations last year, an increase of roughly 54 percent from 2007.<\/p>\n

Nationally, Latino naturalizations jumped 95 percent from about 237,000 in 2007 to 461,000 in 2008, according to the analysis released Tuesday by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. NALEO used data from the DHS\u2019 Office of Immigration Statistics, counting immigrants who hailed from predominantly Spanish-speaking countries as Latinos.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And the sociologist weighs in…<\/p>\n

\n

Nestor Rodriguez, a sociology professor at the University of Texas, said the growth in naturalization applicants was expected based on the level of legal immigration to the U.S. in the 1990s. More than 9.7 million people were admitted as legal permanent residents during that decade, he said, roughly 80 percent of them from Latin America and Asia. Although it takes only five years for a green-card holder to be eligible for citizenship, many historically have waited to take the oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like a boa constrictor that eats something, and it makes its way through the body,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThis is the bump that\u2019s going down the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez added that some new citizens may have been spurred to action by the fee increase that took effect in July 2007<\/span> and raised the cost of a citizenship application from $330 to $595.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And another sociologist…<\/p>\n

\n

Tom Janoski, an associate professor of sociology from the University of Kentucky who has researched international naturalization trends, said some new citizens may have been driven to apply because of a fear of deportation in many immigrant communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne factor that causes people to naturalize is that they\u2019re scared,\u201d Janoski said.<\/p>\n

Immigration officials conducted a series of high-profile work-site enforcement raids and targeted home raids in 2007 and 2008 that prompted protests. Unlike citizens, legal permanent residents convicted of crimes can be stripped of their legal status and put into deportation proceedings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Houston Chronicle reports today on new naturalization statistics indicating that Latinos are driving the recent record-level surge in United States, comprising nearly half of the one million new Americans in 2008.\u00a0 The numbers: Nearly half of the record-setting 1 million new U.S. citizens sworn in last year were Latino immigrants \u2014 a 95 percent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[39112,89],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-culture","tag-immigration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}