As news of a Monday deal between Republicans and Democrats ended a government shutdown, negotiations on immigration, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and DREAMers will likely continue to dominate national political headlines for the next few weeks. In anticipation of this debate, the Center for Migration Studies of New York released a report on Monday afternoon, listing statistical highlights of the country’s DREAMer population. Here are some of the report’s findings:
- “More than 2.2 million US residents would qualify for conditional residence under the DREAM Act.”
- “An additional 929,000 —who are now age 18 and over— arrived when they were under 18, but have not graduated from high school and are not enrolled in school and, thus, would not currently qualify for status under the Act.”
- “The DREAM Act-eligible can be found in large numbers (5,000 or more) in 41 states and more than 30 counties, metropolitan areas, and cities.”
- “Potential DREAM Act recipients have lived in the United States for an average of 14 years.”
- “Sixty-five percent (age 16 and above) participate in the labor force, with far higher rates in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Utah, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, and Oregon.”
- “This population works heavily in sales and related occupations; food preparation and serving; construction and extracting; office and administrative support; production; transportation and material moving; and building/grounds cleaning and maintenance.”
- “70,500 are self-employed.”
- “Eighty-eight percent speaks English exclusively, very well, or well.”
- “392,500 have U.S.-citizen children, and more than 100,000 are married to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
- “Twenty-nine percent has attended college or received a college degree.”
The full report is below: