SC Times
Friday, May 2, 2014
Ben Katzner and Kari Petrie
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While foreign-born populations are on the rise locally, the numbers aren't as high as some have estimated.A St. Cloud State University fact sheet analyzing immigrant populations in St. Cloud and the surrounding areas outlines how foreign born populations are growing locally and highlights other trends among the area's foreign-born populations.
Data from the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimates that in the city of St. Cloud and St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area — defined as Stearns and Benton counties by the Census Bureau — there were 4,484 and 7,221 foreign-born members of the population respectively from 2008-2012, according the fact sheet. Those people accounted for 6.8 percent of St. Cloud's population and 3.8 percent of the population in St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area.
The metropolitan statistical area numbers are up, according to census data collected in 2000. That year there were 4,748 foreign-born members in the region.
St. Cloud State Economics Professor King Banaian is one the fact sheet's authors. He said the fact sheet was put together after a request from St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter III and St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis.
Banaian said Potter and Kleis wanted to clear up what they saw as misconceptions of the immigrant, specifically Somali, population. Both representatives of and those concerned about the Somali population have put those numbers as high as 10,000.
But the census data tells a different story.
In St. Cloud, East African populations made up that largest group immigrant communities, numbering an estimated 888 people between 2008-2012, according to the fact sheet. The number changed to 1,022 in St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area but was still behind the Mexican-born population, which numbered 1,313. Kenyan immigrants and Vietnamese immigrants rounded out the the city's top-three largest populations. There were 469 Kenyans in St. Cloud during the survey span and 463 native Vietnamese in the city.
Banaian said the census does not include a Somalia option for a country of origin, so they have to go by East African numbers.
In St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area, there were 595 Vietnamese immigrants and 324 Kenyan immigrants. Korean immigrants also had a notable contingent in St. Cloud's MSA. There were 521 Korean immigrants in Benton and Stearns counties compared with 262 in St. Cloud.
Out of an estimated 65,787 people in St. Cloud during the survey's data collection period, 2,348 reported sub-Saharan African ancestry, 1,182 reported having Somali ancestry and 807 reported African ancestry. The largest group was people of German ancestry, according the the fact sheet. The group numbered 22,742 and easily surpassed the next largest ancestry group, Norwegians, which claimed 4,387 people.
Statistics from the fact sheet also showed that there were an estimated 1,185 juvenile citizens born to foreign born parents in St. Cloud during the length of the survey. That number grew to 2,434 went surveying St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area.
The data collected shows that the longer a foreign-born person is in the region, the more likely they are to avoid poverty. Of the 7,221 immigrants in St. Cloud's metropolitan statistical area, about two-thirds were members of the labor force, according to researchers. Their unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.
Contact Writers at: [email protected], [email protected]
Read the full report at: www.stcloudstate.edu/sopa/_files/documents/research/st-cloud-immigration-fact-sheet.pdf.