Number of Illegal Immigrants Rises in Southeast

When the Olympic Games came to Atlanta in 1996, a building boom transformed the landscape of downtown and brought with it an influx of Latino immigrants both legal and illegal.

In the years since, the number of illegal immigrants living in Georgia has skyrocketed, more than doubling to 480,000 from January 2000 to January 2009, according to a new federal report. That gave Georgia the greatest percentage increase among the 10 U.S. states with the biggest illegal immigrant populations during those years. Many in metro Atlanta say the explanation for the boom is simple.  It was because of the jobs.
For years, Chamblee, Georgia was the last stop for three bus companies carrying immigrants from the border city of Brownsville, Texas.  With cheap housing, easy transportation and an abundance of work, the immigrants put down roots and were quick to tell family and friends back home of the opportunities in the Atlanta area.
The large immigrant populations in Georgia and North Carolina are largely Mexican and undocumented,  a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.

As recently as the 1980s, Southeastern states, with the exception of Florida, had very few immigrants, legal or illegal, Passel said. California, which is still home to about 24 percent of the country's illegal immigrants, used to account for about 40 percent. Five other states,Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey shared another 40 percent, he said.
But a recession in California in the early 1990s, and a ready supply of low-skilled jobs in other regions prompted immigrants to look elsewhere, especially the Southeast.
Nationwide,  illegal immigrant population grew 27 percent during the above mentioned study period, though the numbers fell in the last two years. The population was 11.8 million in January 2007. It fell to 11.6 million in January 2008 and dropped to 10.8 million in January 2009. That coincides with the downturn in the U.S. economy, and demographers say the drop is likely to be temporary.

Once the economy rebounds, construction will pick up, as will the service industry, and illegal immigrants will return for those jobs.

Demographers expect the Southeast to bounce back faster than states like California, Nevada and Arizona. And they don't expect hostile attitudes or get-tough laws to keep illegal immigrants from coming back to Georgia.
"The only way you're going to get the illegal immigrant population in Georgia to go down or nationwide is to legalize them or get rid of the jobs," said Dowell Myers, a specialist in demographic trends at the University of Southern California.