The crumbling economy has slowed the rate of foreign-born people making the Washington area home, but the rate of migration to the District and its suburbs remains higher than the national average.
Fewer than 10 percent of immigrants in Maryland, and 8 percent in Virginia arrived there in 2008 or later. In Washington, about 12 percent of foreign-born residents arrived since the recession hit.
Maryland and Virginia drew 12 percent of the states’ total immigrant population in the span between 2005 and 2007 when job prospects were bright and public services plentiful. D.C. attracted 14 percent of its immigrants in that period.
| The diversifying Washington region | ||||||
| Even as migration has slowed from Latin America and the Caribbean, the District, Maryland and Virginia have seen tremendous population growth from other parts of the world. | ||||||
| Country/region of origin | D.C. 2000 | D.C. 2010 | Maryland 2000 | Maryland 2010 | Virginia 2000 | Virginia 2010 |
| China | 2,700 | 3,100 | 33,500 | 49,800 | 23,500 | 39,100 |
| India | 1,100 | 1,800 | 32,300 | 52,300 | 30,600 | 65,900 |
| East Africa | 3,120 | 6,300 | 13,300 | 34,000 | 14,400 | 32,400 |
| Latin America | 37,100 | 36,000 | 176,000 | 312000 | 189,800 | 338,000 |
But while Washington, Maryland and Virginia have seen declines in the rate at which immigrants are arriving, the national declines have been more dramatic. In the entire United States, only about 7 percent of immigrants have arrived since 2008, compared with 10 percent between 2005 and 2007.
The declines have been steepest among people from Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the census report, 54 percent of the foreign-born who arrived before 2005 and 53 percent of those who arrived between 2005 to 2007 were born in that region. Since 2008, that percentage has dropped to 41 percent.
In the D.C. region, much of the slack created by a slowing rate of Latin American — and especially Salvadoran — immigrants has been picked up by more highly educated immigrants from Africa and Asia, said Randy Capps, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
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“It has to do with the fact that the economic bottom has fallen out for people without degrees,” Capps said. “And it implies that lower-income families that tend to cost more in terms of services will be a smaller share than they’ve been in the past, and that will continue as long as the job market remains weak for lower-skilled workers.”
Jay Bhandari, a native of India who has lived in Northern Virginia for nearly 20 years, said that his community has grown exponentially as a result of the region’s wealth of high-tech jobs and educational opportunities.
Since 2000, the Indian-born population of Virginia has more than doubled to nearly 66,000 people. In Maryland, it has grown by more than 60 percent to 52,300.
“When I first moved here, we had to look around for other Indians. Now, you don’t need to look hard at all,” he said.
