This map shows where immigrants are moving in the US

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This map shows where immigrants are moving in the US
  • Census Bureau data for counties shows where people are moving in and out.
  • The above map of the US shows net international migration during part of the pandemic.

Just over 2,000 of US counties and county-equivalents saw more immigrants coming from other countries than people leaving the country during part of the pandemic. That means around 71% or 2,218 of the 3,143 counties and county-equivalents experienced positive net international migration.

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That's based on Census Bureau data covering net international migration from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

Insider recently looked at what net domestic migration rates looked like at the county-level using Census Bureau estimates, but the Census Bureau also publishes data for net international migration.

The above map shows which counties saw more people moving into the county from outside of the US than moving out and which counties saw more people leaving to another country than moving in from outside the US. We adjusted net international migration by populations as of July 1, 2020. Places with positive net international migration rates are in blue. Places with negative net international migration rates are in red.

Most places saw positive net international migration, but there were places that saw negative values.

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"Counties with net international migration loss (more people moving out of than into the country), were most frequently found in California (41.4%), Oregon (27.8%) and Mississippi (23.2%)," the Census Bureau wrote in a press release.

There were hundreds of counties that actually saw no change in international migration from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, or a net international migration of zero during this part of the pandemic. This includes Cook County, Georgia, and Henderson County, Texas.

The following table shows the counties with the largest positive net international migration during the period among places with at least 10,000 residents as of July 1, 2020:

Overall, net international migration in the US hasn't been as high as it has been in previous years. This is in part because of the pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted international migration patterns both to and from the United States, resulting in the lowest levels of international migration in decades and affecting the data typically used to measure migration flows," Jason Schachter, Pete Borsella, and Anthony Knapp of the Census Bureau post wrote in a post.

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David Kelly, the chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, recently wrote in a weekly note that "net immigration to the United States, both legal and illegal, amounted to roughly 360,000 per year over the past two years compared to over 1 million per year in the middle of the last decade."

"This decline reflects both tougher immigration policies and the pandemic, which reduced legal immigration and caused some recent immigrants to return to their native countries," Kelly wrote in the note.

Kelly recently told Insider that speeding up immigration, especially based on work skills and demand, could help resolve the historic labor shortage that the country is in the middle of.

"We need more workers," Suzanne Clark, the CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, previously told reporters according to CNN, as reported by Insider's Grace Dean. "We should welcome people who want to come here, go to school, and stay."

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