The Horticulturalist

Found this interesting link charting the 20 countries from which the most people came to the USA in 2008.
Any guesses as to why the UK and Russia are the only the only European countries are the only ones in the top 20?
You can see it here

CitySimon

Interesting statistics.

For the UK... My first guess would be down to the UK and the US sharing a language and being a close trade partner with one another.

As for Russia... Proximity? Again for trade purposes?

We hear a lot about immigration, but where there is immigration, there must be emigration... I'd like to see stats for people leaving the US and where they go to to balance the immigration statistics.

rebs

The 18k from 'unknown' is interesting? Wonder why it wouldn't be known where they were from?

another bloody yank

*Insert joke about USC lack of geography skillz here*

cindyabs

Sex, you forgot sex, that could be applicable in both cases, innies and outies.

CitySimon

Ok... Yes, I forgot sex!~!



(One track mind some people)

lansbury

Wonder why 64 people from the UK were refugees or asylum seekers.

Be very interesting to know the background of those cases.

CitySimon

I've done a search online and I think that "unknown" might be something like "data not available"... Not sure why, but there you go.

The 64 who came in as refugees/asylum seekers from the UK are a good one as well.

cindyabs

rebs

I wonder if that would be people who are 'stateless' and have no passport?? Seems quite a high number though...

Yes, would be fascinating to know the stories!

cindyabs

They wanted to be circumcised.

Sally Redux

CitySimon

Not sure. My suggestion was based on a dig through 20 or so pages of google search results and the best I could find for the description of immigrants of "unknown origin" came from a report from the EU, so it could be completely different in the US.

Done some more searching... Based on the DHS website, the demographic characteristics of aliens whose cases are currently being reviewed or are backed up, are unknown... That could count for the number of unknown origin in the statistics.

robin1234

This is an interesting question - I've wondered about this. The US does publish consular data about where Americans live abroad (the top four countries are Mexico, Canada, UK & Germany) But presumably these figures are just the tip of the iceberg, as many Americans living abroad do not register with the consul and may not send in a tax return to the IRS. Americans, presumably, are not required to tell the US when they are emigrating; they just leave. So, to get an answer as to how many Americans emigrate each year and where they settle, you'd have to examine the statistics published by each foreign country.
I think the British publish (or used to) numbers of immigrants from the US.
Here's a UN paper entitled Estimates of Emigration from the US. It contains the table of US consular data about how many, & where, Americans abroad live.

CitySimon

Hi Robin1234,

I found that report on the DHS website... Good point, I think I'll go looking for immigration stats for people coming Into the UK from the US, rather than emigration stats from the US.