“Without immigrants pouring into the nation's big metro areas, places such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston would be losing population.
The New York metro area, which includes suburbs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, added 1 million immigrants from 2000 to 2006. Without those immigrants, the region would have lost nearly 600,000 people.
There are about 36 million immigrants in the United States. About one-third are in the country illegally. The Census Bureau, however, does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.
Immigrants and advocates march to New York's City Hall on March 14 as they rally for immigration reform.
Lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement last year on how best to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Immigration was a contentious issue in many congressional races in November.
Many demographers associate shrinking populations with economic problems, typically poor job markets or prohibitive housing prices.
"A lot of cities rely on immigration to prop up their housing market and prop up their economies," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.”
Without immigrants, big cities would shrink(CNN)
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