What’s a Hoosier? State doesn’t look beyond birth certificates, high school attendance

Indiana is enthralled with the idea of recruiting bright, young people from someplace else. We’re not as “advanced” as Vermont where the state is offering a $10,000 reward for the capture of young people. No, that’s not quite it. The program is called an incentive for young people to move the Green Mountain state.

But would “strangers” be accepted as Hoosiers? In TV ads, candidates proudly note they are Hoosier-born. A Hoosier birth certificate and a certificate of attendance at an Indiana high school seem to be the necessary documentation for social acceptance in much of the state.

According to the 2016 American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau, Indiana ranks 11th among the 50 states with 68 percent of its residents living in their state of birth. The national figure is 59 percent. Louisiana holds first place at 78 percent, while, as you might guess, Nevada has only 26 percent of its residents living in their state of birth.

In all, 37 of our 50 states have the majority of their populations living in their state of birth. Within Indiana, 89 of our 92 counties have 50 percent or more of their residents as native Hoosiers. Clark, Dearborn and Union are the only counties with a minority of residents not Indiana-born. Adams, Martin, and Daviess counties each have more than 85 percent of their population as Indiana-born.

The foreign born population of Indiana is 4.9 percent of the total, tied for 32nd place with Iowa. As expected, the college counties, Tippecanoe and Monroe, with 11 and 8 percent foreign born respectively are high on the list with foreign born students, staff and faculty. But the top seven counties with foreign born persons also include Bartholomew (10 percent), Cass and Marion (9 percent), Elkhart and Hamilton (8 percent) counties — each for different reasons reflecting their diverse economies.

Of the 324,400 foreign Hoosier residents, 37 percent are naturalized citizens. But that does not mean the remaining 63 percent are illegals. We welcome students and workers from many countries who stay and enhance our economy for extended periods of time before becoming citizens.

Today, much of the discussion concerns those who were born in Mexico. Are they different from other immigrant groups living in Indiana?

The answer is a strong yes and no. The median age of all foreign-born persons in Indiana is 38.1 years; for those born in Mexico, it is 37.5. For all foreign-born persons in our state, 58.4 percent are living as married couples; that figure is 58.5 for the Mexican population.

Mexicans tend to have lower incomes than foreign born persons in general. They also have fewer years of schooling which is often the reason for low wages. If we are a state that respects working people, those differences should evaporate with time.