California

California is home to more than 10 million immigrants—about a quarter of the foreign-born population nationwide. In 2016, 27% of California’s population was foreign born, about twice the US percentage. Foreign-born residents represented more than 30% of the population in seven California counties; in descending order, these counties are Santa Clara, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Alameda, Monterey, and Orange. Half of California children have at least one immigrant parent. More than 16,000 immigrants settled in one zip code in Burbank, a suburban city in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, and more than 25,000 new immigrants settled in two zip codes in San Francisco.

The vast majority of California’s immigrants were born in Latin America (51%) or Asia (39%). California has sizable populations of immigrants from dozens of countries; the leading countries of origin are Mexico (4.2 million), China (936,000), the Philippines (813,000), Vietnam (534,000), and India (482,000). However, most (58%) of those arriving between 2012 and 2016 came from Asia; only 28% came from Latin America.

The U.S. Religion Census, conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, estimated there are 120,868 Muslims living in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties.

POBLO’s mission’s coordinator, Yasmin Bhatti is based in the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim metro area.

Mission’s Coordinator, Yasmin Bhatti