New Profile Reveals Contributions of Immigrant Population to Houston Metro Area, Its Growing Diversity and Challenges

WASHINGTON — The Houston metro area, a vibrant region known for its dynamic economy and cultural diversity, has seen significant growth and change in its immigrant population. Nearly one-quarter of the population in the nine-county metro area is comprised of immigrants, well above the Texas share of 17 percent and U.S. share of 13.6 percent. In fact, just under half of all children under age 18 in the Houston area live in a household with at least one immigrant parent.

Long established as one of the most diverse U.S. metro areas, the Houston region is experiencing significant immigration-related transformations, as a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report out today sketches. While not a border city, the Houston area has felt the spillover effects of the record high number of asylum seekers and other migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border since 2021. The metro area has welcomed large numbers of humanitarian migrants and Harris County is the top U.S. destination for unaccompanied children released to sponsors.

Drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) and other sources, the MPI analysis paints a vivid and detailed picture of the Houston metro area’s immigrant communities. The nearly 1.7 million-strong immigrant population in Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties has contributed significantly to the region’s strong post-pandemic economic performance and will play a significant role in shaping its future.

While more than two-thirds of immigrants in the Houston area are U.S. citizens, green-card holders or recipients of some other legal status, growing numbers have temporary (“liminal”) statuses that do not offer a path to permanent residence or are unauthorized, leaving their future uncertain. The varying statuses and levels of eligibility for public services have created a complex landscape for service providers, organizations and immigrants themselves.

MPI estimates about 360,000 adults in the metro area (at least 276,000 in Harris County alone) meet the criteria to become U.S. citizens, but many face barriers to naturalization for reasons including limited proficiency in English and the cost to apply.

“With well-designed policies and adequate resources to foster immigrant integration, established and more recent immigrants alike will continue to contribute to the metropolitan area’s dynamism," write MPI analysts Valerie Lacarte, Michael Fix and Jeanne Batalova.

Beyond examining the eligible-to-naturalize population, the data analysis provides a snapshot of the overall immigrant population’s nationalities, race/ethnicity, legal status, educational attainment, industries of employment, proficiency in English and languages spoken, poverty levels, home ownership and employment/underemployment levels.

Among the findings in Immigration and Integration in the Ever More Diverse Houston Area:

• The area's immigrants come from increasingly diverse backgrounds. While Mexico remains the top country of origin, accounting for 37 percent of the foreign-born population, other nationalities taken together comprise a growing share, rising from 54 percent in the 2006-2010 period to 63 percent in 2017-2021. Immigrants from Vietnam, India, Nigeria, Venezuela, China and Colombia are among the top 10 origins, joining Mexico and northern Central America countries.
• Immigrant workers play crucial roles in vital sectors of the Houston economy, but about one-fifth of college-educated immigrants are underemployed, meaning they work in jobs that require no more than a high school education or are unemployed. This “brain waste” affects about 67,000 immigrants with a college degree, 7,000 of whom have a degree in education or in the health or medical fields—two sectors with ongoing labor shortages.
• Sixty-four percent of immigrants in the area identify as Latino, 22 percent as Asian or Pacific Islander, 8 percent non-Hispanic White and 6 percent Black. The race/ethnicity picture is sharply different by legal status, with 86 percent of unauthorized immigrants Latino, 9 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, 3 percent Black and 2 percent White.
• Forty-three percent of immigrants in the metro area have family incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($25,750 for a family of four during the period examined), compared to 31 percent of U.S.-born residents.

The trends reflected in the report “point to both the strengths and challenges facing the Houston area’s growing and diversifying immigrant community,” the authors note.

Service providers and organizations that assist immigrants in the Houston area have opportunities to maximize immigrants’ economic and civic contributions, for example by reducing employment and licensing barriers, helping improve English proficiency and assisting with naturalization applications and legal assistance for those with temporary or liminal statuses.

The MPI research project was made possible through a grant from the Houston Endowment.

To read the report, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigration-integration-houston-area.