WASHINGTON,
Aug 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Even after the September 11
attacks, nationals from the Middle East and North Africa continue to
immigrate to the United States in droves, with one million more
expected to arrive by 2010.
Basing
its predictions on the theory that U.S. immigration policy would not
tighten in coming years, the study by the Center for Immigration
Studies, a think-tank that generally favors imposing more limits on
immigration to the United States, concluded that by 2010, 2.474
million immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa would arrive
in the United States compared to 1.47 million in 2000 - up from
192,000 in 1970.
In
a report based on U.S. Census Bureau data timed to coincide with the
one-year anniversary of the attacks that killed more than 3,000, the
center tracked 30 years of immigration from the region where all of
those suspected in the attacks hail from.
Among
the countries whose nationals were included in the study released
Wednesday were Turkey, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The
report said Middle Eastern immigrants were highly educated, with 49%
holding at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 28% of natives, with
median earnings for Middle Eastern men at $39,000 a year, compared to
$38,000 for native workers, reports news agencies.
Over
the last 30 years, those communities have multiplied seven-fold from
their 1970 level of 192,000 to 499,000 in 1980 to 817,000 in 1990 -
although global immigration to the United States has only tripled in
that time.
The
center also noted that the figures did not include the 570,000
children under 18 who were born in the United States who had at least
one parent born in the Middle East - a number that is to reach 970,000
by 2010.
About
10% (150,000) of the illegal immigrants who enter the United States
are from the region. But many immigrants from the Middle East, from
countries including Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel and Turkey are
not Arab, the study found.
Neither
the wave of arrests and random attacks that swept through Arab- and
Muslim-American communities, nor immigration restrictions imposed by
the U.S. Justice Department have had a "large impact on the total
flow of immigrants from the region over the course of the
decade," said study author Steven Camarota.
"The
events of Sept. 11 have led to somewhat higher scrutiny for applicants
from that part of the world," he said. "However, this is
unlikely to have a large impact on the total flow of immigrants from
the region because many individuals have been waiting years to join
family members already here and the political freedoms and economic
opportunities in the United States remain very attractive."
"The
political freedoms and the economic opportunities in the United States
remain very attractive to a significant share of the world's
population, including those in the Middle East."
Immigrants
from that part of the world are likely to seek to influence U.S.
foreign policy - especially in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, Camarota said.
The
religious leanings of the new wave of immigrants are also likely to
enhance that need for influence, as most of the new would-be U.S.
citizens are Muslim, while in the 1970s, they were predominantly
Christian.
In
1970, just 15% of immigrants from that part of the world were Muslim -
today it is about 75%, Camarota said.
"Muslims
are dissatisfied with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. They
feel it's one-sided and as this group grows in size, that could lead
to changes."
In
October 2001, the U.S. State Department received about 1.5 million
requests from the region to participate in a green card lottery for
resident aliens - although there was a marked drop off in global
applications after the September 11 attacks
