By NOELLE PHILLIPS
nophillips@thestate.com

Illegal immigrants make up about 2.2 percent of South Carolina’s workers, well below the national average of 5.4 percent of the labor force.

The Pew Hispanic Center study, based on 2008 statistics and released Tuesday, says the impact of illegal immigrants on the S.C. labor market is not as widespread as many have thought.

In reaction to the report, people who study the state’s immigrant population said they think the number of illegal immigrants flowing into the state has leveled off.
However, critics said they think the report dramatically undercounted the number of Hispanic workers in the state.

Of the 2.2 million workers in South Carolina, about 50,000 are illegal immigrants, according to Pew. Of the state’s 4.4 million residents, about 1.6 percent are illegal immigrants, the report said.

The number of illegal immigrant workers in South Carolina has been at issue in recent years as people complained illegal workers were taking jobs from legal residents.
In response to those complaints, the S.C. Legislature last year passed a law to curb illegal immigration. The law required employers to verify that workers were here legally.

Between 2003 and 2007, South Carolina reported one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country as workers poured into the state to build houses, offices and retail centers.

“During the construction boom earlier this decade, we were drawing in so many undocumented workers, and it became really visible,” said Doug Woodward, research economist at USC Moore School of Business. “It seemed like there would be no end to the increasing growth of the labor force.”

Now, however, that growth has slowed. As a result, Woodward said he expects the state’s immigrant population to stay at its current size for a while.
The influx of illegal immigrants slowed across the country during 2008, the Pew center said.

The economic downturn has been particularly harsh on the construction industry, a primary employer for illegal immigrants, said Woodward. “They’re finding that, just like their home countries, we also have large-scale economic crises.”

No one knows whether the state’s slumping economy and tougher immigration law have forced illegal immigrants to leave South Carolina, said Woodward, who has studied the economic impact of immigrants.

However, some who study immigrants said they thought Pew underestimated the number in South Carolina.

Roan Garcia-Quintana, executive director of Americans Have Had Enough, an anti-illegal immigration group in the Upstate, said the Pew report’s numbers are off base. “That’s way too low.”

He said some industries hire primarily illegal immigrants. “That can add up real fast,” he said.

Elaine Lacy, a USC Aiken history professor who researches the state’s immigrant population, also thinks the Pew estimate is low because it relies on Census data.
“A lot of demographers say you could double the Census numbers,” Lacy said.

Lacy has heard illegal immigrants are leaving the state, but the evidence is anecdotal, such as conversations with people in Hispanic grocery stores. Those who reportedly are leaving are mostly single or have family in their home countries, she said.

Lacy said many South Carolinians think the percentage of illegal workers in the state is higher. But, Lacy said, not all Hispanic workers are here illegally, adding that hostility to immigrants is not new.

“If you got back to the 18th century, when we had a lot of Irish and Italian immigrants, people were saying the same thing,” Lacy said. “It especially comes up when there is an economic downturn.”