Tennessee

 

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC POWER OF IMMIGRANTS, LATINOS,

AND ASIANS IN THE VOLUNTEER STATE

Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians account for large and growing shares
of the economy and population in Tennessee. Immigrants (the foreign-born)
make up roughly 4.7% of the state’s population, and more than
one-third of them are naturalized U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote.
Immigrants are essential to the state’s economy as workers, taxpayers,
and business owners. Moreover, Latinos and Asians (both foreign-born
and native-born) account for 1 in 16 Tennesseans and wield $12.3 billion
in consumer purchasing power. At last count, the sales and receipts of
businesses owned by Latinos and Asians totaled $5.4 billion and employed
more than 38,000 people. Immigrant, Latino, and Asian workers, consumers,
and entrepreneurs are integral to Tennessee’s economy and tax base—
and they are an electoral force with which every politician must reckon.

 

Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Tennessee’s

population and electorate.

◾The foreign-born share of Tennessee’s population rose from 1.2% in 1990, to 2.8%

    in 2000, to 4.7% in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Tennessee was

    home to 304,801 immigrants in 2013, which is more than the total population of

    Saint Paul, Minnesota.

◾37.5% of immigrants (or 114,362 people) in Tennessee were naturalized U.S. citizens

    in  2013—meaning that they are eligible to vote.

◾Unauthorized immigrants comprised roughly 2% of the state’s population
   (or 130,000 people) in 2012, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

◾3% (or 94,902) of all registered voters in Tennessee are “New Americans”
    —naturalized citizens or the U.S.-born children of immigrants who were raised
    during the current era of immigration from Latin America and Asia which began
    in 965—according to an analysis of 2012 Census Bureau data by the American
    Immigration Council.