Ethnicity & Immigration - Immigration: The Trend Is Up

In 2000, the foreign-born population of the United States was 28.4 million people, the highest number of people ever, but a relatively low percentage of the total population, 10.4%. In the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries, the foreign population was well above 10%, peaking at 17.7% in 1910.

Immigration to the United States — and hence the size of the foreign-born population in the country — is influenced equally by what might be called "natural" phenomena (wars and economic trends) and by legislation. War and poor economic conditions inhibit immigration. Legislation may be repressive or stimulative. The two periods of steady increase in the foreign population in this 150-year period, 1850 to 1920 and 1970 to 2000, were periods of permissive legislation. The period of downturn was in part the result of legislation passed in 1921 and 1924, then renewed in 1952, which imposed a nation-of-origin quota system, restricted immigration, and favored immigration from Europe. No quota system existed before 1921, and this policy was removed in legislation passed in 1965; subsequent acts of Congress further liberalized immigration policy. The recent increase in the foreign-born population, consequently, is the result of changes in national policy — which may, of course, also reverse again.

One person in ten was born in a foreign country. The foreign-born may be citizens or non-citizens, and may be in the United States legally or illegally. What is the profile of this population?

Let us compare the regions of origin of these populations in 1960, 1980 and in 2000. The following table provides the particulars.

Foreign-Born Population of the United States, 1960, 1980, and 2000
	% of Foreign-Born Population			Change between periods
Region of origin	1960	1980	2000	1960-1980	1980-2000
North America	9.8	6.8	2.5	-3.3	-4.0
Europe	75.0	39.0	15.3	-36.0	-23.7
Latin America	9.4	33.1	51.0	23.7	17.9
Asia	5.1	19.3	25.5	14.2	6.2
Other Area	0.7	2.1	5.7	1.4	3.6

As a percent of the foreign-born population, Europeans have been displaced from their leading position by a combination of Latin Americans and Asians in the 40-year span between 1960 and 2000. This, of course, is the origin of the rising Hispanic ethnicity and of the new prominence enjoyed by the Asian/Pacific Islander group of the population. North America, as a point of origin, means Canada. "Other Area" includes the Middle East, Africa, and Australia.

The two major trends in immigration, thus, are a strong increase in the population of those born non-citizens of the U.S. and a shift toward foreigners born in Latin America and Asia. In the next panel, we examine the citizenship status of this foreign-born group. In the last panel, we look briefly at illegal immigrants.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Reports. Series P23-206. Schmidley, A. Dianne, Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States:2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001.