Democrats and Hispanics love affair -- is it based on income?

[Linus Van Pelt]

According to the most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, which is an official Homeland Security document, the countries of birth for new legal permanent residents in 2012 are as follows. (All values are %).

Mexico 14.2
China, People's Republic 7.9
India 6.4
Philippines 5.6
Dominican Republic 4.0
Cuba 3.2
Vietnam 2.7
Haiti 2.2
Colombia 2.0
Korea, South 2.0
Jamaica 2.0
Iraq 2.0
Burma 1.7
El Salvador 1.6
Pakistan 1.4
Bangladesh 1.4
Ethiopia 1.4
Nigeria 1.3
Canada 1.3
Iran 1.3
all other countries 34.3

New naturalizations in 2012, meanwhile, (i.e. citizens, who can actually vote, unlike PR's), are as follows (again, in %):

Mexico 13.5
Philippines 5.9
India 5.7
Dominican Republic 4.4
China, People's Republic 4.2
Cuba 4.1
Colombia 3.2
Vietnam 3.1
Haiti 2.5
El Salvador 2.2
Jamaica 2.1
Korea, South 1.8
Peru 1.6
Pakistan 1.5
Brazil 1.3
Iran 1.3
Ukraine 1.2
Nigeria 1.2
Somalia 1.2
United Kingdom 1.2
all other countries 36.8

So, both Chinese and Indians (and East Asians and South Asians more generally) continue to represent large percentages of new Asian immigrants. It does appear, though, that the naturalization/immigration ratio is higher among Indians than among Chinese. I don't know whether this is just because rates of immigration are changing from 5-10 years ago, or instead more Chinese people get green cards without eventually becoming citizens.

[Linus Van Pelt]

So, both Chinese and Indians (and East Asians and South Asians more generally) continue to represent large percentages of new Asian immigrants. It does appear, though, that the naturalization/immigration ratio is higher among Indians than among Chinese. I don't know whether this is just because rates of immigration are changing from 5-10 years ago, or instead more Chinese people get green cards without eventually becoming citizens.

Yeah. The other day I read a New York Times article about this. There are restrictions for how many permanent visas or citizenships different nationalities may receive each year. For some countries like the Phillipines, Mexico, China and India, the number of applications are much, much higher than the legal visas available. Thus residents of certain nationalities have had to wait for 20 years or in some cases even more in order to obtain citizenship. Now we're talking legal immigrants of course. The longest waiting time is expected for residents of Phillipine nationality. As of 2013, they've had to wait on average 23.5 years in order to change their green card into full citizenship. Mexicans stand at almost 17 years, while Chinese and Indians - for some reason lumped together - had an average waiting period of 12 years. Sorry, this number of years does not apply to every resident, only to those being siblings of a current US citizen. For spouses and children, the wait is less than 2 years, even for these worst hit countries.

This is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/us/legal-immigrants-seek-reward-for-years-of-following-the-rules.html?pagewanted=all

Here is the graphic illustrating the long wait: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/15/us/legal-immigrants-waiting-in-line.html?ref=us

No, these are separate issues. There are statutory limits on the number of permanent residencies (green cards) that can be granted by country and category in each year. Thus, for certain countries and categories, there are very long wait times to move from legal temporal status to permanent residency, and the wait times vary significantly by nationality. This is what the article is about. But there are no such annual limits on moving from permanent residency to citizenship. Thus, if people are not becoming citizens when they become eligible after five years with a green card, it is by their own choice (aside from cases where the application is rejected).