Undocumented immigrant study released

Last week, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens released findings from a study conducted by the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University about undocumented immigrants.
&#8220The current estimation is that 275,000 undocumented immigrants enter the country each year,” said Hollis Calhoun, group manager of the study. &#8220That means that there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. now.”
The study focused labor, use of public services and issues affecting the children of undocumented immigrants.
The research found that 69 percent of respondents came to the country for employment reasons. Within a month's time, 56 percent had found work. The top three areas of employment for undocumented immigrants are construction trades, the restaurant industry and domestic services.
The study also found that more than half of those surveyed have tax IDs, 60 percent paid income tax and 74 percent said they have no form of medical insurance.
Research found that the majority have family residing in the United States. More than 60 percent have children living with them in the U.S. and 40 percent have children who are citizens of the country.
Based on the results of the research, four recommendations were made to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens. They are to assist in developing a &#8220stronger network of the advocacy and service organizations that target undocumented immigrants,” initiating a marketing and communications campaign to further inform immigrants about available services, to do further research to find out which industries in Queens employ undocumented immigrants and encourage better business practices, and to work more with SIPA to &#8220create a thorough implementation plan.”
The study included 163 people who represented 13 different countries in Latin America. The majority of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 44. Of them, 62 percent had arrived in the United States in the last nine years and 65 percent spoke only Spanish.