The illegal immigration situation in Hawaii is different than the rest of the country. While most U.S. states have undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, Hawaii faces an influx of illegal immigrants from the Philippines and Japan.
The Migration Policy Institute estimated that about 20,000 unauthorized immigrants live in Hawaii. With a total population of about 1.4 million, those numbers make up about 1.4 percent of the total population of the state. A large percentage of those immigrants have been in the state for less than 10 years (77 percent).
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The Immigration Policy Center said Hawaii has a high percentage of foreign-born residents. More than 17 percent of Hawaii residents are immigrants. About 23 percent of all the business owners in the state were foreign-born immigrants.
Hawaii is one of few states where the majority of undocumented immigrants come from countries other than Mexico. About 7 percent of undocumented immigrants in the state come from Mexico. Most of the state’s undocumented immigrants come from the Philippines (48 percent) and Japan (14 percent), the Migration Policy Institute said. In New Hampshire, the greatest concentration of illegal immigrants comes from India. In Massachusetts, the greatest number of illegal immigrants comes from El Salvador. In Rhode Island, the greatest number of illegal immigrants comes from Guatemala.
The Pew Research Center said Hawaii has the nation’s largest percentage of multiracial residents. About one-quarter of the population identifies as more than one race. This starkly different than the rest of the country, where the states with the next highest percentage of multiracial residents (Alaska and Oklahoma) come in at just 8 percent and 7 percent. The demographics of this population include a high percentage of people with Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific-Islander bloodlines.
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