GOVERNMENT REPORTS MAJOR DECLINE IN IMMIGRATION NUMBERS

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced that legal immigration fell 10.4% in Fiscal Year 1995. Combined with Fiscal Year 1994's drop of 9.3%, the decline represents the largest drop in immigration number since the Great Depression of the 1930s. According to the INS, the decline is due to 1) the lack of demand for employment-based immigrant visas; 2) the completion of special immigrant programs started in 1990; and 3) a drop in the number of spouse and parent immigrants.

Only 85,336 of the permitted 140,000 Employment-based visas were used in the last fiscal year. This represents a 31% decrease from the previous year and is attributed to the near completion of the Chinese Student Protection Act.

The number of immigrants admitted under the legalization program of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 dropped from 34,074 to 277. And the number of refugees adjusting to permanent residency dropped by 7.5% between 1994 and 1995.

The number of spouses of US citizens granted permanent residency dropped 15% between 1994 and 1995 and the number of parents of US citizens admitted dropped by 25%.

The INS also reports that immigrants are dispersing across the US and are not as likely to settle in traditional immigrant communities. Immigrants settling in California dropped by more than 20%, 11% in New York, and 20% in Illinois. Immigrants were settling in greater numbers in Georgia (23.4%); Michigan (11.1%), Florida (6.8%) and Virginia (6.4%).