Findings on FY2017 Permanent Residents
With the first half of the fiscal year 2017 already behind us, the Department of Homeland Security has released data regarding recent trends in immigration in the United States. Included in the release of data is statistical information about lawful permanent residents, refugees, naturalizations, and more. Please note that Fiscal Year 2017 actually began on October 1, 2016, and is slated to end on September 30, 2017.
Lawful Permanent Residents: October 2016-March 2017
In just the first half of 2017, roughly 568,000 people became lawful permanent residents. About fifty percent of this group of new lawful permanent residents were able to become LPR’s due to a relative already in the United States. Over forty percent of these individuals were from China, India, Cuba, Mexico, the Phillippines, and the Dominican Republic.
Naturalizations: October 2016-March 2017
265,000 foreign nationals were granted United States citizenship through the naturalization process in the first six months of 2017. Forty percent of these new citizens had come to the United States from Mexico, China, India, Cuba, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic.
Refugees: October 2016-March 2017
38,000 refugees were admitted into the United States in the first half of the fiscal year to seek protection from the dangers happening in their countries of origin. The top five countries where refugees came from were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Burma.
If the data is analyzed by quarter, there were significantly more refugees admitted, more lawful permanent residents gaining status, and fewer naturalizations in the first quarter of the fiscal year compared to the second quarter. One could speculate that this may have to do with our Presidential administration changing hands after the first quarter, when a new administration that has very different policies on immigration took over.
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