FullConTech hits the road on September 26, as WTIA takes the event to Leavenworth for discussions and problem-solving focused on the immigrant workforce. We’ll be talking about the role temporary foreign workers play in our state’s tech and agriculture industries, as well as their economic impact.

To get ready for the big day, we’ve been diving into data in an effort to learn more about immigration, generally, in Washington State. Here are some interesting things we’ve discovered over the past few months:

Washington is one of the top 15 states with regard to the size of its immigrant population. Our state ranks 14th in the nation. California is #1.

About 14% of Washington State’s population is made up of immigrants. That’s up from 10% in 2000. Also, immigrants make up about 17% of our workforce. These numbers nearly match the national percentages.

One in four children in Washington is the child of an immigrant. Most of these children are U.S.-born citizens.

A quarter of our immigrants come from Mexico. Latin America accounts for 31% of our immigrants, and 40% of our immigrants come from Asia.

More than 46% of immigrants in Washington State are naturalized U.S. citizens. That’s close to the national number, which is 47%. In Washington, immigrants and their children make up 13% of registered voters.

Immigrants in Washington opened 46,000 new businesses between 2006-2010 with a total net business income of $2.5 billion. In 2010, 15% of all business owners in Washington were foreign-born.

Washington is one of six states where unauthorized immigration has been growing. Between 2009 and 2014, unauthorized immigration to our state was up 14%, with most of that growth coming from Asia. The other states that saw an increase were Louisiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania. For the U.S. overall, unauthorized immigration has remained stable. Still, the percentage of unauthorized immigrants in Washington (25%) is lower than that of the U.S. (31%).

Unauthorized immigrants pay taxes. In Washington, unauthorized immigrants make up about 3% of our state’s population but 5% of our workforce. And they pay over $300 million per year in state and local taxes.

If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Washington, the state would lose $14.5 billion in economic activity. And $6.4 billion in gross state product.

More than 20% of Washington’s farmworkers are immigrants on H-2A visas. In 2012, Washington was the state with the third highest number of certified H-2A visa positions with 7,086. (The H-2A visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers for temporary agricultural jobs. The exact number of workers on H-2A visas in the U.S. isn’t publicly available. The Dept. of Labor certified/approved 85,000 positions in 2012, but just because a position has been certified doesn’t mean that it was actually  filled with a foreign worker.)

Forty-four percent of our state’s farmworkers are immigrants without legal status. Nationally, 26% of farmworkers do not have legal status.

Washington has a minimum wage for foreign farmworkers. This year, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries set the minimum wage rate at $13.38/hour.

About 30% of Washington’s STEM workers are immigrants. That’s higher than the national average of 24% and lower than California’s 42%.

Washington ranks 9^th in the U.S. for the number of H-1B visa applications. Microsoft, Infosys, and Amazon are the Washington companies that request the highest number of visas. While Facebook requests relatively few visas in Washington, the company has the highest average salary for workers on H-1B visas. (The H-1B visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. The H-1B visa is tied to a specific employer. If a worker with an H-1B visa quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must find another employer [subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa] or leave the U.S. The number of H-1B visas granted each year is capped at 66,000.)

In 2015, employers in Washington requested nearly 18,000 H-1B visas — about 3% of total requests. The average salary for jobs that would be done by visa holders in Washington was $95,118 — the highest of the top 10 states requesting visas.

Washington’s 25,554 foreign students contributed $737 million to the state’s economy in the 2013-14 academic year. That amount includes tuition, fees, and living expenses.

Washington is one of 10 states that, together, have welcomed more than half the refugees who have come to the U.S. Washington welcomed 4% of the refugees who came to the U.S. in 2016. Washington is also one of the top states in terms of the number of refugees we welcomed per capita – 45 per 100,000 residents. The number for the U.S. overall is 26.

The upcoming fall FullConTech will take place at Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort. The Technology Alliance, a non-profit organization of Washington technology leaders from businesses and research institutions, will be holding their biennial Technology Institute there at the same time. This will give us an opportunity to come together and share ideas during some FullConTech sessions.

Join us for FullConTech on September 26. Register by September 5 and get the early bird discount.