Immigrants becoming US Citizens

DHS data: Somalis slow to become naturalized citizens, by Ann Corcoran 5/14/17

Before you see the information I found at the Dept. of Homeland Security website, don’t miss John Binder at Breitbart Texas about the new bunch of Somalis deported to their home country, here, this month, a story featured on Drudge last night. 

I took a few minutes this morning to look at data and came across this database at the Dept. of Homeland Security that tells us how many immigrants (country of origin) who naturalized in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. 730,259 from many more than 100 countries (I got tired of counting!) became US citizens in 2015.

But, considering the fact that we have admitted far in excess of 100,000 Somalis to the US going back decades, I was surprised at how relatively low their naturalization numbers are.  (Checking Wrapsnet I see we admitted 102,392 Somalis since FY03 with 5,244 coming just in the last 7 months).

At present naturalization rates, they could hardly be much of an electoral force except for in places like Minneapolis, MN or Columbus, OH where large numbers have congregated to form ethnic enclaves.

First here are some of the major ethnic groups naturalizing at high rates (for 2015):

Mexico: 105,958

India: 42,213

Philippines: 40,815

China:  32,241

Even Vietnam was pretty hefty at 21,976

Of the largest refugee-sending countries, the Iraqis are naturalizing at a healthy rate: 14,899 in 2015 (and showing an increase from 2013-2015).

But, the Somalis (3,691) and the Burmese (6,045) don’t seem to be too excited about becoming US citizens. Here is one little segment of the data base showing the Somali naturalization numbers dropping from 2013-2015:

https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/dhs-data-somalis-slow-to-become-naturalized-citizens/