Immigrants thinning out

Good news for those who believe that foreign-born residents are a scourge to society as we know it. Their numbers are declining. About 100,000 fewer foreign-born people were living in the U.S. in 2008 compared with a year earlier, according to Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey, who used newly released Census data. That's the first such decline since at least 1970. From the WSJ:

It is impossible to know how many immigrants are entering and leaving the U.S., because millions are here illegally. But the Census data, combined with a recent analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group, strongly suggest that fewer foreigners are flocking to the U.S. The industries so dependent on them during boom times are also scaling back.

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At the Hollywood Community Job Center where dozens of Hispanic day laborers congregate at dawn with hopes of securing a day's work, manager Angel Olvera said "the impact of the crisis is tremendous." As the recession deepened in 2008, struggling immigrants were joined by Americans who had lost union jobs in construction, Mr. Olvera said. Now, only 10 out of 80 job seekers are hired by homeowners and labor contractors who drive up to the center, located beside a Home Depot. "Many workers who got jobs here regularly have returned to their countries," said Mr. Olvera.