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The Multicultural Health Network is beginning a new series of articles which will be posted monthly in the CONNECTION highlighting recently published literature and data with implications for Utah minority health.

 

This article uses the terms, “immigrants” and “migrants”. An immigrant moves to a new country. A migrant moves to a new place, that may or may not be within their original country.

 

Racial Diversity of Migrants

Over the past 30 years, immigrants have come to Utah in record numbers. About three-quarters of the foreign-born population in Utah is classified by the federal government as a racial or ethnic minority, compared with only 10 percent of the native-born population. The demographic contribution of in-migrants includes the original migrants, their offspring, and all future descendents who remain residents. Utah is more racially, ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and religiously diverse. The Utah minority share of the population has risen from 1.9 percent in 1960 to 17.7 in 2007.

 

Most Migration is Employment Driven

The favorable labor market conditions in Utah compared with the nation, especially since 1990, have attracted a steady stream of workers to the state. Recent immigrants have come to Utah primarily for employment. Economic migrants (foreign and native born) are generally young adults in prime childbearing years.

 

Immigrants Have High or Low Incomes

Recent immigrants have worked in large numbers in construction, landscaping, hospitality, and manufacturing. As educational attainment of the native born has risen, demand for labor at the lower end of the occupational distribution has been met through immigration. Immigrants also are concentrated in the highest-level scientific and technical occupations in the state, especially at our institutions of higher education. For example, about half the medical scientists in the state are foreign born.

 

Other Reasons for Immigration

Although economic opportunity has been the strongest draw for migrants, refugees accounted for one tenth of the increase in the state’s foreign born in the 1990s. The global proselytizing efforts of the LDS Church, as well as the growth of universities and colleges, have drawn more immigrants to the state.

 

 

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Utah’s Demographic Transformation: A View into the Future By Pamela S. Perlich

 

By Pamela S. Perlich

May 2009  Issue # 35