Indiana’s Primary: Immigrants in the Hoosier State
Date: May 3, 2016
The 2016 primaries are rapidly nearing a close, and today the votes are being held in Indiana. There are 57 Republican delegates and 83 Democratic delegates to be awarded, and they can be critical wins for any candidate to secure nomination.
Indiana’s immigrant population growth was relatively slow until recent decades. From 2000 to 2013, its foreign-born population grew by 61.6 percent, reaching over 308,000 people by 2013. The majority of Indiana’s immigrants originate from Mexico, India, and China, respectively.
As Indiana voters head to the polls, find out how its diverse immigrant population is contributing to the state’s economy:
Business
Immigrant entrepreneurs are significantly contributing to economic growth in Indiana. Between 2006 and 2010, immigrant-owned businesses in Indiana generated an average of more than $721 million worth of business income annually, despite only making up 5.2 percent of business owners in the state.
STEM fields
Indiana is home to top research institutions like Purdue University and the Indiana University system, which are known for their advancements to science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—fields. In 2013, almost half (43.7 percent)of STEM graduates who earned their Master’s or PhD degrees at the state’s most research-intensive schools were foreign-born—a group with no clear pathway to stay in the United States after graduation.
Housing
Immigrants in Indiana are helping to grow housing wealth in areas that were once in decline, like Marion County. Between 2000 and 2010, over 31,000 immigrants arrived to Marion County. Due to the influx of immigrants, $3,620 was added to the value of the average home in the county. In total, more than $1.3 billion was added to the housing wealth of the neighborhood’s residents.
To learn more about how immigration in states across the country impact the American economy, check out our interactive map.
