Foreign born

Foreign-born (also non-native) people are those born outside of their country of residence. Foreign born are often non-citizens, but many are naturalized citizens of the country in which they live, and others are citizens by descent, typically through a parent.

The term foreign born encompasses both immigrants and expatriates but is not synonymous with either. Foreign born may, like immigrants, have committed to living in a country permanently or, like expatriates, live abroad for a significant period with the plan to return to their birth-country eventually.

The status of foreign born — particularly their access to citizenship — differs globally. The large groups of foreign-born guest workers in Arab states of the Persian Gulf, for example, have no right to citizenship no matter the length of their residence. In the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States, by contrast, foreign born are often citizens or in the process of becoming citizens. Certain countries have intermediary rules: in Germany and Japan it is often difficult but not impossible for the foreign born to become citizens.

Definition

The adjective foreign-born has two potential meanings:

• "born in a country other than that in which one resides."[1]
• "foreign by birth."[2]

The United Nations uses the first definition to estimate the international migrant stock, whenever this information is available. In countries lacking data on place of birth, the UN uses the country of citizenship instead.[3]

On the other hand, the United States Census Bureau defines foreign-born as "anyone who is not a U.S. citizen at birth", which includes persons who have become U.S. citizens through naturalization but excludes persons born abroad to a U.S. citizen parent or parents.

According to the UN: "Equating international migrants with foreign citizens when estimating the migrant stock has important shortcomings. In countries where citizenship is conferred on the basis of jus sanguinis, people who were born in the country of residence may be included in the number of international migrants even though they may have never lived abroad. Conversely, persons who were born abroad and who naturalized in their country of residence are excluded from the stock of international migrants when using citizenship as the criterion to define international migrants."[3]

Trends by country

Share of migrants in all countries. Data from 2015.

The percentage of foreign born in a country is the product mostly of immigration rates, but is also affected by emigration rates and birth and death rates in the destination country. For example, the United Kingdom and Ireland are destination countries for migrants from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, but are themselves source countries for immigration to other English-speaking countries. The countries with the highest rates of immigration are wealthy countries with relatively open nationality or migration laws, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Persian Gulf states.

The largest foreign-born population in the world is in the United States, which was home to 39 million foreign-born residents in 2012, or 12.6% of the population.[4] The highest percentage of foreign-born residents occurs in small, wealthy countries with large numbers of temporary foreign workers, such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar; the population of each is, depending on the economy at the time, around 80%.[5] In 2010, the Migration Policy Institute reported that the largest percentages were Qatar (86.5%) and UAE (70%).[6]

Cities with largest foreign born populations

Rank	City	Country	Estimate Source	Foreign-Born Population	Percentage
1	London	United Kingdom	ONS 2018	3,236,000[7]	36.4%
2	New York City	United States	2016 ACS	3,200,219[8]	37.5%
4	Sydney	Australia	2016 Census	1,961,977[9]	45.4%
5	Melbourne	Australia	2016 Census	1,784,794[10]	41.3%
6	Los Angeles	United States	2016 ACS	1,499,418	37.7%
3	Toronto	Canada	Canada 2016 Census	2,870,000[11]	49.0%
7	Madrid	Spain	2019 Spain Census	726,669	22.2%
7	Houston	United States	2016 ACS	698,395	30.3%
8	Brisbane	Australia	2016 Census	682,132[12]	33.2%
9	Chicago	United States	2016 ACS	559,623	20.7%
10	Montréal	Canada	Canada 2016 Census	570,940	34.3%
11	San Jose	United States	2016 ACS	402,776	39.3%
12	Calgary	Canada	Canada 2016 Census	383,065	31.3%
13	San Diego	United States	2016 ACS	373,842	26.7%
14	Paris	France	2014 UrbiStat	325,100[13]	14.6%
15	Bogotá	Colombia	2019	352,431	5%
16	Dallas	United States	2016 ACS	324,972	24.7%
17	Milan	Italy	Istat 2011	324,378[14]	10.7%
18	Phoenix	United States	2016 ACS	308,744	19.6%
19	San Francisco	United States	2016 ACS	296,849	34.9%
20	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Statistics Netherlands 2019	277,431	32.1%
21	Miami	United States	2016 ACS	264,656	58.3%
22	Vancouver	Canada	Canada 2016 Census	262,765	42.5%
23	Stockholm	Sweden	Statistics Sweden 2019	248,708	25.5%
24	Ottawa	Canada	Canada 2016 Census	216,505	23.6%
25	Boston	United States	2016 ACS	194,264	28.9%
26	Rotterdam	Netherlands	Statistics Netherlands 2019	184,218	28.6%
27	The Hague	Netherlands	Statistics Netherlands 2019	176,183	32.8%
28	Oslo	Norway	Statistics Norway 2019	171,868	25.2%
29	Gothenburg	Sweden	Statistics Sweden 2019	159,342	27.5%
30	Birmingham	United Kingdom	ONS 2016	140,000	22.8%
31	Manchester	United Kingdom	ONS 2016	140,000	26.4%
32	Copenhagen	Denmark	Statistics Denmark 2019	125,864	19.9%
33	Malmö	Sweden	Statistics Sweden 2019	118,323	34.4%

Metropolitan and Urban regions with largest foreign born populations

1. Data for the cities listed below is from numerous sources.

Rank[15]	City	Country	Foreign-Born Population	Sources of Immigrants
1	New York metropolitan area	United States	5,656,000[16]	Dominican Republic China Jamaica Guyana Mexico Brazil Haiti Trinidad and Tobago Colombia Russia India Pakistan Nigeria
2	Los Angeles metropolitan area	United States	4,421,000[16]	Mexico Philippines El Salvador China Vietnam South Korea Guatemala Ethiopia Armenia Iran
3	London and Home Counties	United Kingdom	4,051,502[7]	India Poland Bangladesh France Pakistan Turkey Nigeria Ireland Sri Lanka Jamaica
4	Greater Toronto	Canada	2,870,000[17]	India China Philippines Sri Lanka Italy United Kingdom European Union Pakistan Iran Jamaica Bangladesh Trinidad and Tobago United States
5	Hong Kong (SAR)	Hong Kong	2,793,450	China Indonesia Philippines Macau Thailand United Kingdom India Pakistan Japan United States Canada
6	San Francisco Bay Area	United States	2,634,270[18][19]	Mexico China Philippines Vietnam India El Salvador South Korea Taiwan Iran Russia
7	Paris metropolitan area	France	2,429,223[20]	Algeria Portugal Morocco Tunisia Guadeloupe Martinique Turkey China Italy Mali
8	Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area	Australia	2,071,872[21]	China United Kingdom India New Zealand Vietnam Philippines South Korea Lebanon Sri Lanka
9	Miami metropolitan area	United States	1,949,629	Cuba Haiti Colombia Jamaica Nicaragua Venezuela Dominican Republic Honduras Brazil Panama Peru
10	Melbourne Greater Capital City Statistical Area	Australia	1,801,139[22]	India China United Kingdom Vietnam New Zealand Italy Sri Lanka Greece
11	Chicago metropolitan area	United States	1,625,649	Mexico India Poland Philippines China Ukraine Italy Guatemala Lithuania
12	Brussels Urban Area	Belgium	1,441,600	Italy France Morocco Turkey Romania
13	Berlin Urban Area	Germany	1,231,500	Turkey Russia Poland Syria Italy Bulgaria Romania Serbia France Vietnam United Kingdom
14	Singapore (city only)	Singapore	1,305,011	Malaysia China India Indonesia Philippines Bangladesh Taiwan Myanmar South Korea
15	Moscow (city only)	Russia	1,128,035	Ukraine Uzbekistan Tajikistan Azerbaijan Moldova Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Armenia Belarus
16	Houston metropolitan area	United States	1,113,875	Mexico El Salvador Vietnam India Nigeria China Honduras Philippines Guatemala Colombia
17	Metropolitan Dubai	United Arab Emirates	1,056,000	India Pakistan Bangladesh Philippines Iran Sri Lanka United Kingdom
18	Riyadh (city only)	Saudi Arabia	1,054,000	Arab League Pakistan India African Union Bangladesh Iran
19	Vancouver metropolitan area	Canada	1,019,170	Hong Kong China India South Korea Taiwan Philippines Vietnam Japan Iran Pakistan Poland United Kingdom Italy United States
20	Washington metropolitan area	United States	1,017,432	El Salvador China Ethiopia Mexico South Korea Nigeria Philippines Vietnam Ghana Bolivia
21	Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex	United States	1,016,221	Mexico India Vietnam El Salvador China South Korea Honduras Philippines
22	Frankfurt Urban Area	Germany	998,400	Turkey Italy Croatia Poland Romania Bulgaria Serbia Greece Russia North Macedonia
23	Tokyo Urban Area	Japan	978,172	China South Korea Philippines Vietnam United States Brazil Nepal Taiwan Peru Thailand
24	Barcelona Urban Area	Spain	862,200	Italy Pakistan China Ecuador Bolivia Morocco France
25	Atlanta metropolitan area	United States	792,208	Mexico India Jamaica South Korea China Vietnam Nigeria Guatemala El Salvador Colombia
26	Montreal Urban Area	Canada	740,400	Algeria Morocco Romania France Haiti Lebanon
27	Brisbane Greater Capital City Statistical Area	Australia	731,198	New Zealand England China India South Africa Philippines Vietnam South Korea Taiwan Scotland Malaysia
28	Auckland Urban Area	New Zealand	662,298	United Kingdom China India Fiji Samoa Philippines South Korea Sri Lanka
29	Stockholm County	Sweden	616,558[23]	Finland Iraq Poland Syria Iran Turkey Eritrea Germany Somalia Afghanistan Thailand
30	Muscat Urban Area	Oman	576,000	India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka
31	Milan Urban Area	Italy	475,000	Egypt Philippines China Romania Sri Lanka
32	Greater Calgary	Canada	400,000	India Pakistan Philippines United States Nigeria China Lebanon Vietnam United Kingdom South Korea Iran Hong Kong Ethiopia Germany European Union
33	Mississauga	Canada	381,730	Pakistan India Jamaica Poland Portugal Italy Egypt China Philippines Sri Lanka Vietnam Hong Kong Iraq Guyana Trinidad and Tobago United Kingdom
34	Greater Manchester	United Kingdom	302,000	Pakistan China Ireland Bangladesh Poland Nigeria India Somalia Jamaica Iraq
35	Greater Edmonton	Canada	274,355	China Pakistan India Somalia Hong Kong Philippines Lebanon
36	Lyon Urban Area	France	241,000	Algeria Morocco European Union Tunisia Romania
37	Helsinki	Finland	213,290[24]	Russia Estonia Somalia Iraq Sweden China Yugoslavia Vietnam India Turkey
39	Hamilton	Canada	130,565	Italy Pakistan India Iraq Philippines Poland Portugal Yugoslavia China
39	Geneva	Switzerland	77,602	Italy France Spain Germany
40	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	70,783	France Portugal Italy Belgium Germany

See also

• Alien (law)
• Expatriate
• Immigration
• Naturalization
• Finishing School
• Foreign-born Japanese
• Immigrant generations

References

1. foreign-born, Dictionary.com
2. Foreign-born, Merriam-Webster
3. INTERNATIONAL MIGRANT STOCK 2019 DOCUMENTATION
4. United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey - March 2012 Detailed Tables, Table 1.1. Accessed September 6, 2014.
5. "UAE flatly rejects citizenship for foreign workers".
6. "Data Hub". migrationpolicy.org.
7. "Population of the United Kingdom by Country of Birth and Nationality".
8. "Place of Birth by Year of Entry by Citizenship Status for the Foreign-Born Population - Universe: Foreign-born population 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates New York City". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
9. "2016 Census QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
10. "2016 Census QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
11. "Census Profile, 2016 Census".
12. "2016 Census QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
13. "Province of PARIS". Urbistat. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
15. "Data Hub". migrationpolicy.org.
16. Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova (April 14, 2016). "U.S. Immigrant Population by Metropolitan Area". Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
17. "Census Profile, 2016 Census - Toronto (Census metropolitan area), Ontario and Ontario (Province)".
18. Bureau, U.S. Census. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
19. "U.S. Immigrant Population by State and County". migrationpolicy.org. 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
20. INSEE. "Répartition de la population de la France par région de naissance et région de résidence en 2008". Retrieved 2012-01-29.
21. Australian Bureau of Statistics. "2016 Census QuickStats - Greater Sydney". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
22. Australian Bureau of Statistics. "2016 Census QuickStats - Greater Melbourne". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
23. https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/befolkning/befolkningens-sammansattning/befolkningsstatistik/pong/tabell-och-diagram/helarsstatistik--kommun-lan-och-riket/utrikes-fodda-efter-lan-kommun-och-fodelseland-31-december/
24. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2018-12-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• ForeignBorn - a resource for entering and living in the US
• US Census Bureau on foreign born population
• Luxembourg – Country Summary
• Migration article from U.C. Davis