REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT PROGRAM
"Immigrant Quotient" (I.Q.) Answers

I. Match the numbers with the reasons why people are legally admitted to the U.S.

family: Approximately 70% of immigrants come to be reunited with close family members

freedom: Approximately 15% come as refugees escaping persecution

work: Approximately 15% come at the invitation of the U.S. employers to fill position for which there is a shortage of U.S. workers

Name one difference between an immigrant and a refugee.

Immigrants are people who come to a country where they intend to settle permanently and obtain citizenship. Immigrants come to work in the U.S. or to reunite with family members already living in the U.S.

What criteria must you meet to fit the definition of "refugee".

The term refugee means any person who is outside any country of such persons nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

(Immigration and Nationality Act §101 (a) (42))

II. Please circle your answer for questions 1-7.

1. What percent of migrants worldwide come to the U.S. each year?

(A) Of the over 100 million migrants worldwide, approximately 1 million come to the U.S. annually.

2. Immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits.

(A) Immigrants as a whole pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. According to a 1994 study by the Urban Institute, legal and illegal immigrants combined pay approximately $70.3 billion per year in taxes and receive $42.9 billion in services such as education and public assistance. Findings in a 1998 study by the Cato Institute and the National Immigration Forum show that over time most immigrant families will pay $80,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits.

3. More immigrants come to the U.S. legally than illegally.

(A) Approximately 300,000 newcomers enter the U.S. illegally or illegally overstay their visas. Total legal immigration to the U.S. in recent years has averaged approximately 900,000 per year.

(United States General Accounting Office, 1993; Urban Institute, 1994)

4. Total annual inflow of legal and illegal immigrants constitutes what percent of the total U.S. population?

(A) Total annual inflow of legal and illegal immigration (slightly more than one million) amounts to less than one-half of one percent of the total U.S. population (approximately 250 million).

5. What percentage of immigrants support themselves or are supported by family members?

(C) More than 90% of immigrants (including refugees and the elderly ) support themselves or are supported by family members (American Immigration Lawyers Association, 1995; Urban Institute, 1994; Wall Street Journal, 1990.)

6. Of over 14 million refugees world-wide, approximately how many are resettled each year in the U.S.?

(A) The fiscal year 1999 quota for refugee admissions to the United States is 87,000.

7. Immigrants currently constitute a bigger proportion of the total U.S. population than ever before in history.

(B) False, In fact, the percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign-born is approximately half of what it was throughout the peak immigration years of 1870-1920. (Census Bureau; Immigration and Naturalization Service, Urban Institute 1995)