New York: An estimated 11.9 million illegal immigrants are residing in the US, out of which 11 per cent hails from the Asian countries, a study has said.
The total number of unauthorised labour immigrants is 8.3 million, which forms the part of America's 154 million strong labour force. The 5.4 per cent illegal immigrant share of the labour force in 2008 rose rapidly from 4.3 per cent in 2003, and has levelled off since 2007, the study by Pew Research Center, based on the data collected by the US Census Bureau till March 2008, has revealed.
The study says the immigrants living in the US are more geographically dispersed than in the past and a growing share of the children of unauthorised immigrant parents that constitutes of 73 per cent, were born in America and are its citizens.
The illegal immigrants form four per cent of the nation's population and 5.4 per cent of its workforce. Their children make up 6.8 per cent of the students enrolled in the nation's elementary and secondary schools.
About three quarters (76 per cent) of the nation's unauthorised immigrant population are Hispanics, 59 per cent from Mexico numbering seven million, 11 per cent from Asia and Central America, 7 per cent from South America, four per cent from Caribbean and less than two per cent from Middle East, the study said.
With 2.7 million illegal immigrants, California has their largest population.