Debates over immigration are not new in Alabama, but the issue has played a major role in both national and state elections. now a day away.

Local officials in a handful of Alabama cities faced what they called “baseless accusations and hurtful rhetoric” about Haitian migrants and other new arrivals in recent months. A key question: How is immigration changing Alabama schools?

AL.com looked at statewide migration and school enrollment trends for 10- to 25-year periods through 2023, the most recent year of data available. What we found paints a complex picture of immigration in Alabama. Scroll down to see local data and trends.

The numbers continue to raise questions about national and state immigration. In September, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall met with law enforcement in Talladega County, following unfounded claims from former President Donald Trump’s campaign about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating their neighbors’ pets. In October, Gov. Kay Ivey and Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth publicly criticized the federal asylum program for migrantswhich allows people from certain countries to come to America for two years as long as they have a financial sponsor.

Caroleene Dobson, Republican candidate in the closely watched 2nd Congressional District, said recently she wants to push for legislation to require more information about migrant workers. She said undocumented immigrants “flood public school classrooms, emergency rooms and other public facilities.”

While the country has seen recent increases in migrants crossing the southern border of the United States, recent research suggests that only a small fraction of Americans they live in communities experiencing significant change.

The same is true in Alabama, according to census data. In fact, many counties have seen a decline in their foreign-born population — especially among school-aged children — over the past decade.

Where communities have seen change, such as Albertville, it can take time to separate fact from rumour. Local officials told AL.com they have seen no increase in crime since a small group of Haitian immigrants arrived.

“These workers come to pay taxes, they pay for our system and they make it possible for us to receive Social Security, to receive our pension benefits,” Hector Baeza, director of federal programs. at Gadsden City Schools, AL.com said.

Baeza, who began working in the small north Alabama district in the mid-1990s, has seen the English system’s student population grow from just over 100 students to more than 700 this school year. Typically, about 20-30% of English language learners are students who have recently arrived in the United States or who are children of migrant workers.

“They come and provide for their family, but they also provide for me,” he said. “It just takes all of us together to be a productive country.”

Alabama immigration by the numbers

Foreign-born immigrants make up about 4 percent of Alabama’s population, compared to 14.3 percent nationally, according to 2023 data from the American Community Survey.

That’s up from 3.5 percent in 2022 — a big jump after nearly a decade of slow growth.

About 98,000, or 9.6 percent, of children under 18 in Alabama have one or more foreign-born parents, up from 2.1 percent in 1990. Only 1 percent of Alabama children, about 13,500, are also , born abroad, according to the latest census surveys. .

Experts say more migrant workers from Mexico and Central America are likely coming to Alabama from states like Florida and Texas, which may explain the changes in the older population.

“What we’re seeing is not so much births, but definitely migration,” said Rafael Gonzalez, program director at the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama. “That’s what’s driving it, and that’s especially happening around that 16-54 age bracket, which is the prime working age.”

Gonzalez said many migrants are driven by economic opportunities, particularly in industries such as agriculture and construction.

However, birth rates among Hispanic immigrants, who make up the majority of foreign-born residents in the state, are higher than those of native-born residents, Gonzalez noted. This could mean that schools can continue to see an increase in the number of students learning English.

And while it’s difficult to gauge more recent population changes, he and other advocates are urging state officials to embrace future growth by strengthening language support and access to higher-skilled jobs.

“What happens with education levels that are not so good for existing jobs is that it also tends to lower the median household income in an area,” he said.

“I think we’re in a good position to be able to anticipate these issues because Alabama hasn’t grown like these other states, but it’s poised to grow.”

Where has immigration increased in Alabama? Where did it fall?

Also, more Alabama immigrants are becoming naturalized citizens. In 2022, 42 percent of all foreign-born Alabamians were naturalized, compared to 31 percent in 2012.

But Gonzalez and other researchers urge some caution when looking at annual census survey data rather than 10-year household counts. Undocumented immigrants may feel especially wary about self-disclosing any personal information to the government.

“It tells the story of a population that tends to be a little bit in the shadows and maybe not want to reveal themselves,” Gonzalez said. “Where this becomes somewhat problematic is that you can’t really articulate a clear picture of where that population is from year to year.”

Even with these caveats, experts are certain of one key fact: Much of the growth is concentrated in pockets of Alabama.

Franklin County in North Alabama has the state’s highest share of immigrants, accounting for 8.7 percent of the population. It is followed by Marshall and DeKalb County, where immigrants make up about 7 percent of the population.

From 2012 to 2022, 27 counties saw declines in their immigrant populations, with Monroe, Henry and Coosa Counties seeing the steepest declines.

Greene, Pickens and Sumter County saw some of the biggest changes in the share of immigrants now living in those areas, while Madison County saw the largest overall increase, with about 10,000 foreign-born residents in the county.

Impact on school systems

“There’s a lot of rhetoric about recent immigrants and how they affect school systems,” said Umut Özek, a researcher at RAND who has looked at the effects of English language learners in “new destination” states that have seen larger immigrant populations arrive in the last period. years.

“But a lot of these debates usually take place in empirical vacuums, because there’s no research to test those different hypotheses and anecdotes.”

Some studies have shown that the new arrivals have helped neighborhood revitalization, stimulate local economies and contribute to academic and social development of their peers.

In Gadsden, immigrant students are drum majors, school ambassadors and star athletes, Baeza said.

Nancy Blanco, ESL and foreign language coordinator at Birmingham City Schools, said she has seen many of her English language learners outperform their peers once they have grasped English.

In recent years, Birmingham schools have enrolled an increasing proportion of immigrant and refugee students.

“It’s something that inevitably gets politicized, but at the end of the day we’re just trying to do the best we can for the kids that are our students,” she said. “And we must remember that these are children who deserve and are legally entitled to all the opportunities that their native English-speaking peers have.”

“We all want the best for our children,” she added. “And often our immigrant families come with a very strong sense of family, of faith, and they’re excited about the opportunities they’re going to have to work and contribute to the community, and they’re excited about the opportunities their children are going to have to learn and progress in their education.”

Officials estimate that nationally, the amount of people coming to the U.S. is just a little higher than those who leave the country.

“What we’ve seen over the last ten years is that the net immigration rate is basically zero,” said Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos, endowed professor and executive director of the Center for Latino Educational Achievement and Success at the University of Georgia. .

“There were a lot of people who actually went back to their home countries,” he said. “So it’s something really interesting to look at – it debunks that myth of an ‘invasion’.”

About data: The Alabama Education Lab analyzed data on citizenship and migration, as well as enrollment of English language learners in schools to understand the extent of immigration trends in the state. Data for EL students was compiled from federal and state education statistics from the 1998-99 school year through 2022-23. We used five-year estimates from 2009 to 2022 from the American Community Survey to analyze county-level immigration patterns, and included new one-year estimates for 2023 to analyze broader state and national trends.