Immigration laws in the United States have been under scrutiny for a long period of time. It is common to find arguments that either support or reject the increase in the number of authorized foreign born population utilizing socioeconomic variables to support the different positions. The different positions regarding immigration reform vary enormously across the United States. The following project explores the spatial relationships between foreign born populations and different socio-economic variables. It explores two main questions: What are the relationships between different kinds of foreign born population and some socioeconomic variables? And do the same socio-economic variables affect the percent foreign born with citizenship differently than how they affect the percent foreign born without citizenship?
The visualizations presented have two fundamental merits to them: Firstly, while there has been extensive cartographic exploration of spatial relationships between foreign born populations, separating US citizens and Not U.S. citizens is not commonly done. Secondly, any kind of statistical analysis in the United States is usually limited to data that is gathered every ten years through the decennial censi. Several social, economic and demographic phenomena have a large degree of variation within a decade. The limitations of having data released only every ten years imposes a temporary constraint to the amount of statistical analysis that happens, most of it being concentrated right after the decennial census data is published. Recognizing these limitations of census data, this project utilizes 2000 census data and 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) data to solve these limitations.
The main drawbacks in the visualizations come from the lack of data in the ACS files which include only the counties with a population of 20,000 people or more. This lack of data, accentuated in the middle of the United States, disrupts spatial patterns.
This project does not intend to contribute to the debate on immigration laws. It is just an exploration of the spatial relationships between percentage of foreign born populations and socioeconomic variables motivated by a personal interest in the immigration debate. It does not provide strong arguments either in favor or against increasing the number of authorized foreign born populations in the United States.