How European and U.S. unauthorized immigrant populations compare
The size of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population in 2017 was less than half the number in the United States.
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The size of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population in 2017 was less than half the number in the United States.
Most live in Germany, the UK, Italy and France, and about half had arrived in Europe in recent years. Overall, these migrants account for less than 1% of Europe’s total population.
A decline in U.S. refugee admissions comes at a time when the number of refugees worldwide has reached the highest levels since World War II.
The first full fiscal year of the Trump administration saw large increases in the number of people arrested and criminally prosecuted for immigration offenses.
Most continue to favor legal status for undocumented immigrants
People around the world are more accepting of refugees fleeing violence and war than they are of immigrants moving to their country.
Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer, on the research techniques used to derive the unauthorized immigrant population estimate in the U.S. and the challenges involved.
While Mexico is the United States’ largest source of immigrants, the number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined since 2007.
Canada resettled 28,000 refugees in 2018, similar to its 2017 total. Meanwhile, the U.S. resettled 23,000, down from the previous year.
There were 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2017. The number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants declined since 2007.
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