Utah's foreign-born population is now coming mainly from Latin America instead of Europe, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Utah's foreign-born population went from 3.4 percent of the population in 1990 to 7.1 percent in 2000, bringing the total number of state residents who were born in a foreign country to 158,657.
Along with that growth came a shift in the makeup of Utah's immigrant population, a shift that is evident nationally, as well, according to a new report on age and immigration released this week and based on the March 2000 Current Population Survey data.
"Historically, Europe has been the primary source of immigration to this country, and the European-born was the single largest group among the older foreign-born population in 2000," said Wan He, author of "The Older Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2000 Report," in a written statement. "Reflecting immigration trends of recent decades, people from Latin America and Asia combined now represent the majority of the foreign-born of all ages and about half the older foreign-born. This likely will modify the characteristics of the older foreign-born population as time passes."
Among the country's 3.1 million foreign-born residents age 65 and older, 39 percent came from Europe, according to the survey, which is not a part of the 2000 Census. Latin America was the second most common source, with 31 percent, followed by Asia with 22 percent.
But when it comes to foreign-born residents of all ages, 51 percent came from Latin America, reflecting a change in immigration patterns in recent years.
In 1990, 24.2 percent of Utah's foreign-born residents had come from Latin America, with Europe as the largest source of immigrants in the state, with 31.2 percent.
That changed in the past decade, as three-fourths of the state's new immigrants came from Latin America.
In 2000, 55.4 percent of Utah's immigrants were born in Latin America, 17.9 percent were born in Asia, 16.2 percent were born in Europe, with others coming from Africa, Oceana and Northern America.
"In the past . . . they were moving here for religious reasons. Migration in the '90s was economic-based," said Neil Ashdown, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. "The United States continues to be an attraction to developing countries."
In the 1990s, jobs were available in the state that required varying degrees of skill and experience, he said, making the state attractive to foreigners. While jobs may have once drawn Europeans to Utah, that pull is not nearly as strong as it once was because of Europe's strength. It's also fairly easy in terms of travel time for Latin Americans to move to Utah.
"Our geographic proximity to Latin America along with their phenomenon of chain migration is a factor," he said.
Chain migration occurs when immigrants urge and often offer financial support for family members and friends back home to join them.
In Utah, 38 percent of the foreign-born population immigrated between 1995 and 2000. Another 50.7 percent came from 1990 to 1994. Those who came before 1965 make up 9.4 percent of the population.
Richard Gomez, educational equity coordinator for the Utah State Office of Education, says Utah classrooms have felt the effects of the recent wave of immigrants.
Teaching a growing number of students who do not speak English is only one of the challenges, he said.
Many immigrants come without parents and live with foster families or other relatives. And in addition to the influx of Latin Americans has been immigration of political refugees from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Gomez said. School districts are scrambling to find good role models of various ethnicities to teach a diverse population of students.
"There are all kinds of factors that play into this," Gomez said.
A couple of years ago, some of these students who came from countries where there is unrest found themselves in the same school as students from countries with conflicting political attitudes and beliefs, Gomez said.
"These kids were being thrown into the same school, and no one even realized . . . the ethnic differences in their native countries," he said.
Teachers are continually being trained to teach non-English speaking students, and federal grant money has helped ease the burden on schools as well as in state employment and health programs.
The Current Population Survey also reports the foreign-born population in the country has become younger. In 2000, the 65-and-older foreign-born population was 10 percent of the entire foreign-born population. In 1960, it was about 30 percent.
And almost two-thirds of older foreign-born residents in 2000 had lived here for more than 30 years, the report states.
E-mail: ehayes@desnews.com