Immigration trends in NH

According to a recent report funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, northwestern counties in New Hampshire have seen an increase in new immigrants over the past decade, while counties along the Massachusetts border have seen a decrease.

The report compared the number of new immigrants from 2000-2005 to the number of new immigrants from 2010-2015, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Coos, Grafton, Sullivan, Merrimack, Belknap, and Strafford counties all saw an increase in new immigrants. New Hampshire's three southernmost counties - Cheshire, Hillsborough, and Rockingham - all saw a decrease in new immigrants. Carroll was the only other county with a decrease in new immigrants.

Regardless of the net change in new immigrants, Hillsborough received more new immigrants in the past five years than all of New Hampshire's other nine counties combined.

The following table shows the number of new immigrants, by county, from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015:

Immigrants may help New Hampshire by bolstering the workforce. Residents age sixty-five and older are the fastest growing population in the state, while most students who attend college in New Hampshire leave the state after graduation. These changes are leaving New Hampshire with a shortage of workers in social services, health care, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

According to the Partnership for a New American Economy, an organization that advocates for immigration policy reform, roughly one-third of STEM graduates from New Hampshire universities in 2013 were foreign-born.

On the other hand, some argue that immigrants unfairly take jobs and educational opportunities away from New Hampshire natives.

A 2014 report from the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that advocates for less immigration, states that "the share of natives holding a job in the state has declined significantly. The decline in employment has been felt primarily by natives without a college education."

Do you see any impacts from immigration in your county? Let us know in the comments.