In Summary
The total number of Kenyans in the US does not
exceed 90,000, said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the
Washington-based Pew Research Centre.
Nairobi. Some 30,000 Kenyans are living in the
United States without authorisation, an expert on immigration to the US
said on Thursday.
The total number of Kenyans in the US does not
exceed 90,000, said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the
Washington-based Pew Research Centre.
Mr Passel’s estimates starkly contradict the
recent claim by Kenya’s former US ambassador, Elkanah Odembo, that at
least half of a supposed total of 400,000 Kenyans in the US do not have
valid visas.
Mr Passel told the Nation that his figures are
based on data from the US Census Bureau and an official count of all
visa admissions to the United States.
Mr Odembo is one of many diplomats who wildly
overestimate the number of nationals from their respective countries who
are living in the US, Mr Passel said.
“Off-the-cuff numbers that are thrown around tend to be way off,” he observed.
“Embassies in particular tend to think there are a lot more people from their countries in the US than the data supports.”
Such inflated calculations “increase the visibility and importance of a country within the United States,” Mr Passel noted.
In some cases, he added, a national of another
country who has registered with that country’s embassy continues to be
counted as residing in the US even after that person has left. Many
people who register do not inform an embassy when they depart the United
States, Mr Passel explained.
His estimate of between 70,000 and 90,000 Kenyans
in total in the US is consistent with the figure included in a 2011
study by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. It put the
number of Kenyans in the US with and without visas at about 87,000.
source: The citizen
source: The citizen