America has long been known as the country that people flock to for a chance at prosperity and freedom. From all around the globe, millions of people will immigrate to America every year. Or will they?

It seems that the foreign born population is taking a significant hit. In 2007, that population group grew by only 511,000 people. Compare that to the growth of around 1million people of foreign birth in 2000.

William H Frey, a researcher for the Brookings Institute attributed this drastic drop in immigration to the current economic situation, stating, “I think this shows that immigrants are keeping an eye on the economy when they make their decision on whether to come or where to live in the United States. When the economy appears to be in decline — particularly for the kind of construction, retail and service jobs that immigrants are inclined to take — they are less attracted to us.”

Many people have attributed this decline to a setup in federal enforcement of illegal immigration from Mexico. Contrary to what these people thing, however, African and Asian immigration is down by nearly 60% where  Hispanic immigration is down only 36%.

While we can’t say for sure why less immigrants are coming to America, one thing is for sure: people are still flocking here.