Immigrants flocking to metro area

Fernando Quintero and Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 22, 2007 at midnight

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One came to learn English, the other to earn better pay. Both have made Colorado their home.

Sara Long, who was born in Quito, Ecuador, and Araceli Horan, of Durango, Mexico, illustrate a significant trend in a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.

According to the agency, counties in the Denver metropolitan region gained the largest number of immigrants from 2000 to 2006, helping offset sizable departures from those same counties.Cause and effect? Larry Kallenberger, executive director of Colorado Counties Inc., doesn't think so.

"I wouldn't be so quick to jump to the conclusion that 'white flight' is happening where large numbers of immigrants are moving to," Kallenberger said.

"My perception is that the people leaving certain counties is due to run-of-the-mill stuff like job changes, retirement, that sort of thing."

The estimates for 2006 are based on births, deaths and net domestic and international migration into each county. The bureau report offered no insight into where the immigrants came from or where the people who left settled down.

From 2000 to 2006, 43,748 people moved to Denver County from other countries, the report said. At the same time, 68,595 people left - more departures than any other county in the state.

Rounding out the top five Colorado counties for immigration growth were Arapahoe, Adams, Boulder and Jefferson.

Long worked for the ministry of tourism in Ecuador, designing brochures, program packets and Web sites to attract international tourists.

"I felt very limited because I couldn't communicate (in English). I knew that if I wanted to have more options in my career, I needed to learn a new language," said Long, who has a master's degree in integrated design.

In 2003, she came to Colorado to work as a live-in nanny though an international au pair program. She took classes in English, learning the language "super fast."

She intended to return to Ecuador but stayed after getting married, settling in Arvada.

Horan, 33, came to Colorado in 2004 after her brother invited her to live with him. In Mexico, she worked sewing undergarments and earned 600 to 650 pesos a week, she said. That's roughly $60 to $65.As a cashier at the Avanza supermarket on South Federal Boulevard, Horan started at $8 an hour and has gotten a 25-cent raise every six months.

"I like it here and I like my work," Horan said.The census report also showed that Douglas County, once the fastest-growing county in the nation, held the No. 7 spot for growth. Its population grew 50 percent, from 175,766 residents in July 2000 to 263,621 in July 2006.

Arizona's Maricopa County led the nation in population increase, gaining 696,000 residents from 2000 to 2006.

Census snapshot

The U.S. Census Bureau released its latest population estimates for counties in the United States.

• Five Colorado counties with the largest immigrant growth since 2000

Denver 43,748

Arapahoe 18,159

Adams 17,285

Boulder 10,588

Jefferson 8,210

• Five most populous counties in Colorado

El Paso 576,884

Denver 566,974