Danbury’s immigrant population on the rise

 

Danbury has had the sharpest increase of residents born in another country of any Connecticut city this decade, a new study shows, and now surpasses Stamford for its percentage of foreign-born residents.

As of 2006, some 26,700 Danbury residents were born outside of the United States, according to Connecticut Voices for Children, 34 percent of the city”™s population.

In 2000, 27 percent of Danbury dwellers were immigrants.

While Stamford”™s immigrant population expanded more slowly, from 30 percent in 2000 to 32 percent today, the city still has the highest number of foreign-born denizens at 37,200.

Some 26 percent of residents in both Bridgeport and Norwalk were born abroad.

From 11 percent of Connecticut”™s population in 2000, immigrants made up 13 percent of state residents in 2006, or 452,000 people.

Besides naturalized citizens, who make up 46 percent of the immigrant population, the study included estimates on:

Ӣ legal permanent residents;

Ӣ refugees and those holding asylum;

Ӣ temporary workers;

Ӣ educational visa holders; and

Ӣ undocumented immigrants.

Among all states, Connecticut has the largest proportion of residents born in Puerto Rico at 2.4 percent, or 86,100, ahead of New York”™s population of 1.8 percent. Approximately one in five Puerto Rican natives in the state live in Hartford.

The state”™s foreign-born population has increased nearly two-thirds since 1990, and just above 20 percent since 2000. Connecticut Voices for Children predicted the trend will help employers deal with the long-term impact of an increasing number of workers expected to retire in the next decade.

The demographics of aging appears in the immigration mix as well. Nearly 47 percent of native Europeans living in Connecticut arrived before 1980, versus just 16 percent this decade.

In 2000, Europeans made up 38 percent of the foreign-born population, while Latin Americans constituted 35 percent. By 2006 that ratio had essentially flip-flopped, with 38 percent now from Latin America and 33 percent from Europe.

Asia has seen the sharpest increase of new arrivals this decade, with 35 percent of all Asian-born residents in Connecticut arriving this decade.

While Poland is the top country of origin, with 33,300 natives living in Connecticut as of 2006, India and Brazil emigrants are the fastest-growing populations in Connecticut at 94 percent and 82 percent, respectively, this decade.

The number of native Italians in Connecticut has dropped 13 percent this decade, while the United Kingdom had a 7 percent drop.