Immigration to the United States

Naturalization ceremony at Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, December 2015.

Immigrants to the United States take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, September 2010.

Population growth rate with and without migration in the U.S.

Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of United States history. All Americans, except for Native Americans, can trace their ancestry to immigrants from other nations around the world. In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the United States population. Some other countries have larger proportions of immigrants, such as Australia with 30% and Canada with 21.9%.

According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted a total of 1.18 million legal immigrants (618k new arrivals, 565k status adjustments) in 2016. Of these, 48% were the immediate relatives of United States citizens, 20% were family-sponsored, 13% were refugees or asylum seekers, 12% were employment-based preferences, 4.2% were part of the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, 1.4% were victims of a crime (U1) or their family members were (U2 to U5), and 1.0% who were granted the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for Iraqis and Afghans employed by the United States Government. The remaining 0.4% included small numbers from several other categories, including 0.2% who were granted suspension of deportation as an immediate relative of a citizen (Z13); persons admitted under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act; children born after the issuance of a parent's visa; and certain parolees from the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who were denied refugee status.

Between 1921 and 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Western Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Eastern European immigration. The civil rights movement led to the replacement of these ethnic quotas with per-country limits for family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas. Since then, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled. The total immigrant population has stalled in recent years, especially since the election of Donald Trump and the Covid-19 pandemic. Census estimates show 45.3 million foreign born residents in March 2018 and 45.4 million in September 2021; the lowest 3 year increase in decades.

Research suggests that immigration to the United States is beneficial to the United States economy. With few exceptions, the evidence suggests that on average, immigration has positive economic effects on the native population, but it is mixed as to whether low-skilled immigration adversely affects low-skilled natives. Studies also show that immigrants have lower crime rates than natives in the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

History

Main article: History of immigration to the United States

Immigrants on ocean steamer passing the Statue of Liberty, New York City, 1887

American immigration history can be viewed in four epochs: the colonial period, the mid-19th century, the start of the 20th century, and post-1965. Each period brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States.

Colonial period

During the 17th century, approximately 400,000 English people migrated to Colonial America. However, only half stayed permanently. They comprised 85–90% of white immigrants. From 1700 to 1775, between 350,000 and 500,000 Europeans immigrated: estimates vary in sources. Only 52,000 English reportedly immigrated in the period 1701 to 1775, a figure questioned as too low. 400,000–450,000 were Scots, Scots-Irish from Ulster, Germans, Swiss, French Huguenots, and 300,000 involuntarily transported Africans. Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17th and 18th centuries arrived as indentured servants. They numbered 350,000. From 1770 to 1775 (the latter year being when the American Revolutionary War began), 7,000 English, 15,000 Scots, 13,200 Scots-Irish, 5,200 Germans, and 3,900 Irish Catholics arrived. Fully half of the English immigrants were young, single men who were well-skilled, trained artisans, like the Huguenots. The European populations of the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were ethnically very mixed, the English constituting only 30% in Pennsylvania, 40–45% in New Jersey, to 18% in New York.

Historians estimate that fewer than one million immigrants moved to the United States from Europe between 1600 and 1799. By comparison, in the first federal census, in 1790, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214.

Early United States era

The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to "free white persons"; it was expanded to include black people in the 1860s and Asian people in the 1950s. This made the United States an outlier, since laws that made racial distinctions were uncommon in the world in the 18th century.

In the early years of the United States, immigration (not counting the enslaved, who were treated as merchandise rather than people) was fewer than 8,000 people a year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti. Legal importation of enslaved African was prohibited after 1808, though many were smuggled in to sell. After 1820, immigration gradually increased. From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans migrated to the United States. The death rate on these transatlantic voyages was high, during which one in seven travelers died. In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law, the Page Act of 1875.

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, 1902

After an initial wave of immigration from China following the California Gold Rush, Congress passed a series of laws culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning virtually all immigration from China until the law's repeal in 1943. In the late 1800s, immigration from other Asian countries, especially to the West Coast, became more common.

20th century

The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country. By 1910, 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States.

While the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had already excluded immigrants from China, the immigration of people from Asian countries in addition to China was banned by the Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, which also banned homosexuals, people with intellectual disability, and people with an anarchist worldview. The Emergency Quota Act was enacted in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1924 Act was aimed at further restricting immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, particularly Jewish, Italian, and Slavic people, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s, and consolidated the prohibition of Asian immigration.

Polish immigrants working on the farm, 1909. The welfare system was practically non-existent before the 1930s and the economic pressures on the poor were giving rise to child labor.

Immigration patterns of the 1930s were affected by the Great Depression. In the final prosperous year, 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants recorded, but in 1933, only 23,068 moved to the U.S. In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than to it. The U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was intended to encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their will. Altogether, approximately 400,000 Mexicans were repatriated; half of them were US citizens. Most of the Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis and World War II were barred from coming to the United States. In the post-war era, the Justice Department launched Operation Wetback, under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954.

Since 1965

Immigrant trunks. Left, from Sweden, late 19th century. Right, from Refugee camp in Thailand, 1993.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, abolished the system of national-origin quotas. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations, which changed the ethnic demographics of the United States. In 1970, 60% of immigrants were from Europe; this decreased to 15% by 2000. In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40%. In 1991, Bush signed the Armed Forces Immigration Adjustment Act 1991, allowing foreign service members who had served 12 or more years in the US Armed Forces to qualify for permanent residency and, in some cases, citizenship.

In November 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187 amending the state constitution, denying state financial aid to illegal immigrants. The federal courts voided this change, ruling that it violated the federal constitution.

Appointed by Bill Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to approximately 550,000. While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, "the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations", said President Bill Clinton in 1998. "America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants ... They have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people."

Boston Chinatown, Massachusetts, 2008.

In 2001, President George W. Bush discussed an accord with Mexican President Vincente Fox. Due to the September 11 attacks, the possible accord did not occur. From 2005 to 2013, the US Congress discussed various ways of controlling immigration. The Senate and House were unable to reach an agreement.

Nearly 14 million immigrants entered the United States from 2000 to 2010, and over one million persons were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. The per-country limit applies the same maximum on the number of visas to all countries regardless of their population and has therefore had the effect of significantly restricting immigration of persons born in populous nations such as Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines—the leading countries of origin for legally admitted immigrants to the United States in 2013; nevertheless, China, India, and Mexico were the leading countries of origin for immigrants overall to the United States in 2013, regardless of legal status, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study.

Nearly 8 million people immigrated to the United States from 2000 to 2005; 3.7 million of them entered without papers. In 1986 president Ronald Reagan signed immigration reform that gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Hispanic immigrants suffered job losses during the late-2000s recession, but since the recession's end in June 2009, immigrants posted a net gain of 656,000 jobs. Over 1 million immigrants were granted legal residence in 2011.

For those who enter the US illegally across the Mexico–United States border and elsewhere, migration is difficult, expensive and dangerous. Virtually all undocumented immigrants have no avenues for legal entry to the United States due to the restrictive legal limits on green cards, and lack of immigrant visas for low-skilled workers. Participants in debates on immigration in the early twenty-first century called for increasing enforcement of existing laws governing illegal immigration to the United States, building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) Mexico-U.S. border, or creating a new guest worker program. Through much of 2006 the country and Congress was engaged in a debate about these proposals. As of April 2010 few of these proposals had become law, though a partial border fence had been approved and subsequently canceled.

Modern reform attempts

Beginning with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, presidents from both political parties have steadily increased the number of border patrol agents and instituted harsher punitive measures for immigration violations. Examples of these policies include Ronald Reagan’s Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and the Clinton-era Prevention Through Deterrence strategy. The sociologist Douglas Massey has argued that these policies have succeeded at producing a perception of border enforcement but have largely failed at preventing emigration from Latin America. Notably, rather than curtailing illegal immigration, the increase in border patrol agents decreased circular migration across the U.S.–Mexico border, thus increasing the population of Hispanics in the U.S.

Presidents from both parties have employed anti-immigrant rhetoric to appeal to their political base or to garner bi-partisan support for their policies. While Republicans like Reagan and Donald Trump have led the way in framing Hispanic immigrants as criminals, Douglas Massey points out that "the current moment of open racism and xenophobia could not have happened with Democratic acquiescence". For example, while lobbying for his 1986 immigration bill, Reagan framed unauthorized immigration as a "national security" issue and warned that "terrorists and subversives are just two days' driving time" from the border. Later presidents, including Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, used similar "security" rhetoric in their efforts to court Republican support for comprehensive immigration reform. In his 2013 State of the Union Address, Obama said "real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made – putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history".

Trump administration policies

ICE reports that it removed 240,255 immigrants in fiscal year 2016, as well as 226,119 in FY2017 and 256,085 in FY2018. Citizens of Central American countries (including Mexico) made up over 90% of removals in FY2017 and over 80% in FY2018.

In January 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending entry to the United States by nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries. It was replaced by another executive order in March 2017 and by a presidential proclamation in September 2017, with various changes to the list of countries and exemptions. The orders were temporarily suspended by federal courts but later allowed to proceed by the Supreme Court, pending a definite ruling on their legality. Another executive order called for the immediate construction of a wall across the U.S.–Mexico border, the hiring of 5,000 new border patrol agents and 10,000 new immigration officers, and federal funding penalties for sanctuary cities.

The "zero-tolerance" policy was put in place in 2018, which legally allows children to be separated from adults unlawfully entering the United States. This is justified by labeling all adults that enter unlawfully as criminals, thus subjecting them to criminal prosecution. The Trump Administration also argued that its policy had precedent under the Obama Administration, which had opened family detention centers in response to migrants increasingly using children as a way to get adults into the country. However, the Obama Administration detained families together in administrative, rather than criminal, detention.

Other policies focused on what it means for an asylum seeker to claim credible fear. To further decrease the amount of asylum seekers into the United States, Attorney Jeff Sessions released a decision that restricts those fleeing gang violence and domestic abuse as "private crime", therefore making their claims ineligible for asylum. These new policies that have been put in place are putting many lives at risk, to the point that the ACLU has officially sued Jeff Sessions along with other members of the Trump Administration. The ACLU claims that the policies that are currently being put in place by this Presidential Administration is undermining the fundamental human rights of those immigrating into the United States, specifically women. They also claim that these policies violate decades of settle asylum law.

In April 2020, President Trump said he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration to the United States because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Origins of the U.S. immigrant population, 1960–2016

% of foreign-born population residing in the U.S. who were born in ...

	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2018
Europe-Canada	84%	68%	42%	26%	19%	15%	15%	14%	14%	14%	14%	13%	13%
South and East Asia	4%	7%	15%	22%	23%	25%	25%	26%	26%	26%	27%	27%	28%
Other Latin America	4%	11%	16%	21%	22%	24%	24%	24%	24%	24%	24%	25%	25%
Mexico	6%	8%	16%	22%	29%	29%	29%	28%	28%	28%	27%	26%	25%

Note: "Other Latin America" includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Persons obtaining legal permanent resident status by fiscal year

Year		Year		Year		Year		Year		Year		Year		Year
1890	455,302	1910	1,041,570	1930	241,700	1950	249,187	1970	373,326	1990	1,535,872	2010	1,042,625	2018	1,096,611
1895	258,536	1915	326,700	1935	34,956	1955	237,790	1975	385,378	1995	720,177	2015	1,051,031	2019	1,031,765
1900	448,572	1920	430,001	1940	70,756	1960	265,398	1980	524,295	2000	841,002	2016	1,183,505	2020	707,362
1905	1,026,499	1925	294,314	1945	38,119	1965	296,697	1985	568,149	2005	1,122,257	2017	1,127,167

Decade	Average per year
1890–99	369,100
1900–09	745,100
1910–19	634,400
1920–29	429,600
1930–39	69,900
1940–49	85,700
1950–59	249,900
1960–69	321,400
1970–79	424,800
1980–89	624,400
1990–99	977,500
2000–09	1,029,900
2010–19	1,063,300

Refugee numbers

Operation Allies Refuge: Afghans being evacuated on a US Air Force Boeing C-17 plane during the Fall of Kabul (2021)

Main article: Asylum in the United States

According to the Department of State, in the 2016 fiscal year 84,988 refugees were accepted into the US from around the world. In the fiscal year of 2017, 53,691 refugees were accepted to the US. There was a significant decrease after Trump took office; it continued in the fiscal year of 2018 when only 22,405 refugees were accepted into the US. This displays a massive drop in acceptance of refugees since the Trump Administration has been in place.

On September 26, 2019, The Trump administration announced it plans to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, its lowest level since the modern program began in 1980.

In 2020 The Trump administration announces that it plans to slash refugee admissions to U.S. for 2021 to a record low, 15,000 refugees down from a cap of 18,000 for 2020. This is the fourth consecutive year of declining refugee admissions under the Trump term.

Period	Refugee Program
2018	45,000
2019	30,000
2020	18,000
2021	15,000

Contemporary immigration

Naturalization ceremony, Salem, Massachusetts, 2007

As of 2018, approximately half of immigrants living in the United States are from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Many Central Americans are fleeing because of desperate social and economic circumstances in their countries. Some believe that the large number of Central American refugees arriving in the United States can be explained as a "blowback" to policies such as United States military interventions and covert operations that installed or maintained in power authoritarian leaders allied with wealthy land owners and multinational corporations who stop family farming and democratic efforts, which have caused drastically sharp social inequality, wide-scale poverty and rampant crime. Economic austerity dictated by neoliberal policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and its ally, the U.S., has also been cited as a driver of the dire social and economic conditions, as has the U.S. "War on Drugs", which has been understood as fueling murderous gang violence in the region. Another major migration driver from Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) are crop failures, which are (partly) caused by climate change. "The current debate … is almost totally about what to do about immigrants when they get here. But the 800-pound gorilla that’s missing from the table is what we have been doing there that brings them here, that drives them here", according to Jeff Faux, an economist who is a distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.

Until the 1930s most legal immigrants were male. By the 1990s women accounted for just over half of all legal immigrants. Contemporary immigrants tend to be younger than the native population of the United States, with people between the ages of 15 and 34 substantially overrepresented. Immigrants are also more likely to be married and less likely to be divorced than native-born Americans of the same age.

Immigrants are likely to move to and live in areas populated by people with similar backgrounds. This phenomenon has remained true throughout the history of immigration to the United States. Seven out of ten immigrants surveyed by Public Agenda in 2009 said they intended to make the U.S. their permanent home, and 71% said if they could do it over again they would still come to the US. In the same study, 76% of immigrants say the government has become stricter on enforcing immigration laws since the September 11, 2001 attacks ("9/11"), and 24% report that they personally have experienced some or a great deal of discrimination.

Public attitudes about immigration in the U.S. were heavily influenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. After the attacks, 52% of Americans believed that immigration was a good thing overall for the U.S., down from 62% the year before, according to a 2009 Gallup poll. A 2008 Public Agenda survey found that half of Americans said tighter controls on immigration would do "a great deal" to enhance U.S. national security. Harvard political scientist and historian Samuel P. Huntington argued in his 2004 book Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity that a potential future consequence of continuing massive immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, could lead to the bifurcation of the United States.

The estimated population of illegal Mexican immigrants in the US decreased from approximately 7 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2011 Commentators link the reversal of the immigration trend to the economic downturn that started in 2008 and which meant fewer available jobs, and to the introduction of tough immigration laws in many states. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the net immigration of Mexican born persons had stagnated in 2010, and tended toward going into negative figures.

More than 80 cities in the United States, including Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, have sanctuary policies, which vary locally.

Origin countries

See also: United States immigration statistics

Inflow of New Legal Permanent Residents by region, 2015–2020

Region	2015	% of total	2016	% of total	2017	% of total	2018	% of total	2019	% of total	2020	% of total	/% in 2020
Americas	438,435	41.7%	506,901	42.8%	492,726	43.7%	497,860	45.4%	461,710	44.8%	284,491	40.2%	38.4%
Asia	419,297	39.9%	462,299	39.1%	424,743	37.7%	397,187	36.2%	364,761	35.4%	272,597	38.5%	25.3%
Africa	101,415	9.7%	113,426	9.6%	118,824	10.5%	115,736	10.6%	111,194	10.8%	76,649	10.8%	31.1%
Europe	85,803	8.2%	93,567	7.9%	84,335	7.5%	80,024	7.3%	87,597	8.5%	68,994	9.8%	21.2%
Australia and Oceania	5,404	0.5%	5,588	0.5%	5,071	0.5%	4,653	0.4%	5,359	0.5%	3,998	0.6%	25.4%
Unknown	677	0.1%	1,724	0.1%	1,468	0.1%	1,151	0.1%	1,144	0.1%	633	>0.1%
Total	1,051,031	100%	1,183,505	100%	1,127,167	100%	1,096,611	100%	1,031,765	100%	707,632	100%	31.4%

Source: US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics

Top 15 sending countries, 2015–2020:

Country	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Mexico	158,619	174,534	170,581	161,858	156,052	100,325
India	64,116	64,687	60,394	59,821	54,495	46,363
China	74,558	81,772	71,565	65,214	62,248	41,483
Dominican Republic	50,610	61,161	58,520	57,413	49,911	30,005
Vietnam	30,832	41,451	38,231	33,834	39,712	29,995
Philippines	56,478	53,287	49,147	47,258	45,920	25,491
El Salvador	19,487	23,449	25,109	28,326	27,656	17,907
Brazil	11,424	13,812	14,989	15,394	19,825	16,746
Cuba	54,396	66,516	65,028	76,486	41,641	16,367
South Korea	17,138	21,801	19,194	17,676	18,479	16,244
Jamaica	17,642	23,350	21,905	20,347	21,689	12,826
Nigeria	11,542	14,380	13,539	13,952	15,888	12,398
Venezuela	9,144	10,772	11,809	11,762	15,720	12,136
Colombia	17,316	18,610	17,956	17,545	19,841	11,989
Afghanistan	8,328	12,513	19,538	12,935	10,136	11,407
Total	1,051,031	1,183,505	1,127,167	1,096,611	1,031,765	707,362

Charts

Inflow of New Legal Permanent Residents by continent in 2020:

  Americas (40.2%)

  Asia (38.5%)

  Africa (10.8%)

  Europe (9.8%)

  Australia and Oceania (0.6%)

  Unknown (0.1%)

Languages spoken among U.S. immigrants, 2016:

  English only (16%)

  Spanish (43%)

  Chinese (6%)

  Hindi and related languages (5%)

  Filipino/Tagalog (4%)

  French (3%)

  Vietnamese (3%)

  Arabic (2%)

  Other (18%)

Demography

Extent and destinations

See also: List of U.S. states by net international migration

Little Italy in New York, ca.1900

Crowd at the Philippine Independence Day Parade in New York City

Galveston Immigration Stations

Year	Number of foreign-born	Percent foreign-born
1850	2,244,602	9.7
1860	4,138,697	13.2
1870	5,567,229	14.4
1880	6,679,943	13.3
1890	9,249,547	14.8
1900	10,341,276	13.6
1910	13,515,886	14.7
1920	13,920,692	13.2
1930	14,204,149	11.6
1940	11,594,896	8.8
1950	10,347,395	6.9
1960	9,738,091	5.4
1970	9,619,302	4.7
1980	14,079,906	6.2
1990	19,767,316	7.9
2000	31,107,889	11.1
2010	39,956,000	12.9
2017	44,525,500	13.7
2018	44,728,502	13.5
2019	44,932,799

• 2010, 2017, 2018

The United States admitted more legal immigrants from 1991 to 2000, between ten and eleven million, than in any previous decade. In the most recent decade, the 10 million legal immigrants that settled in the U.S. represent roughly one third of the annual growth, as the U.S. population increased by 32 million (from 249 million to 281 million). By comparison, the highest previous decade was the 1900s, when 8.8 million people arrived, increasing the total U.S. population by one percent every year. Specifically, "nearly 15% of Americans were foreign-born in 1910, while in 1999, only about 10% were foreign-born".

By 1970, immigrants accounted for 4.7 percent of the US population and rising to 6.2 percent in 1980, with an estimated 12.5 percent in 2009. As of 2010, 25% of US residents under age 18 were first- or second-generation immigrants. Eight percent of all babies born in the U.S. in 2008 belonged to illegal immigrant parents, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Legal immigration to the U.S. increased from 250,000 in the 1930s, to 2.5 million in the 1950s, to 4.5 million in the 1970s, and to 7.3 million in the 1980s, before becoming stable at about 10 million in the 1990s. Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year, of whom about 600,000 are Change of Status who already are in the U.S. Legal immigrants to the United States now are at their highest level ever, at just over 37,000,000 legal immigrants. In reports in 2005–2006, estimates of illegal immigration ranged from 700,000 to 1,500,000 per year. Immigration led to a 57.4% increase in foreign-born population from 1990 to 2000.

Foreign-born immigration has caused the U.S. population to continue its rapid increase with the foreign-born population doubling from almost 20 million in 1990 to over 47 million in 2015. In 2018, there were almost 90 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants (second-generation Americans) in the United States, accounting for 28% of the overall U.S. population.

While immigration has increased drastically over the 20th century, the foreign-born share of the population is, at 13.4, only somewhat below what it was at its peak in 1910 at 14.7%. A number of factors may be attributed to the decrease in the representation of foreign-born residents in the United States. Most significant has been the change in the composition of immigrants; prior to 1890, 82% of immigrants came from North and Western Europe. From 1891 to 1920, that number decreased to 25%, with a rise in immigrants from East, Central, and South Europe, summing up to 64%. Animosity towards these different and foreign immigrants increased in the United States, resulting in much legislation to limit immigration.

Contemporary immigrants settle predominantly in seven states, California, New York, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois, comprising about 44% of the U.S. population as a whole. The combined total immigrant population of these seven states was 70% of the total foreign-born population in 2000.

Origin

Foreign-born population of the United States in 2017, by country of birth.

>10,000,000   1,000,000–3,000,000   300,000–1,000,000   100,000–300,000

30,000–100,000   <30,000   United States and its territories

Immigrants to the United States (2012–2016) per thousand inhabitants of each country of origin (2012).

>10.0   3.0–10.0   1.0–3.0   0.3–1.0

0.1–0.3   <0.1   United States and its territories

Foreign-born population in the United States in 2019 by country of birth

Country of birth	Population (2019)	2018–2019 change
Total foreign-born	44,932,799	+204,297
Mexico	10,931,939	−239,954
India	2,688,075	+35,222
China	2,250,230	+28,287
Philippines	2,045,248	+31,492
El Salvador	1,412,101	−7,229
Vietnam	1,383,779	+38,026
Cuba	1,359,990	+16,030
Dominican Republic	1,169,420	−8,444
South Korea	1,038,885	−214
Guatemala	1,111,495	+104,508
Colombia	808,148	+18,587
Canada	797,158	−16,506
Jamaica	772,215	+38,786
Honduras	745,838	+99,585
Haiti	701,688	+14,502
United Kingdom	687,186	−12,007
Germany	537,691	−21,411
Brazil	502,104	+29,467
Venezuela	465,235	+71,394
Peru	446,063	−21,109
Ecuador	431,150	−11,955
Poland	404,107	+5,321
Pakistan	398,399	+19,296
Nigeria	392,811	+18,100
Russia	392,422	+8,917
Iran	385,473	+3,522
Taiwan	371,851	−18,299
Ukraine	354,832	+28,947
Japan	333,273	−28,292
Italy	314,867	−10,036
Bangladesh	261,348	+296
Thailand	260,820	−8,561
Nicaragua	257,343	−4,734
Ethiopia	256,032	−22,051
Guyana	253,847	−26,450
Iraq	249,670	+12,248
Hong Kong	231,469	−1,779
Trinidad and Tobago	212,798	−9,770
Argentina	210,767	+16,346
Egypt	205,852	−1,727
Ghana	199,163	+3,792
Laos	176,904	−7,486
France	171,452	−19,727
Romania	167,751	+5,308
Nepal	166,651	+18,017
Portugal	161,500	−8,390
Kenya	153,414	+6,854
Burma	150,877	+10,486
Cambodia	149,326	+10,792
Israel	132,477	+2,551
Afghanistan	132,160	+18,491
Lebanon	120,065	−1,861
Greece	119,571	−6,128
Turkey	117,291	−9,203
Spain	116,077	−1,713
Somalia	114,607	+11,230
Ireland	111,886	−13,104
South Africa	111,116	+11,444
Bosnia and Herzegovina	104,612	−957
Indonesia	101,622	+7,543
Panama	101,076	−2,674
Australia	98,969	+8,382
Liberia	98,116	+12,824
Albania	94,856	+4,617
Chile	93,950	−9,080
Costa Rica	93,620	+6,237
Syria	92,514	−19,252
Jordan	90,018	+2,335
Armenia	87,419	+151
Netherlands	82,603	−5,632
Bolivia	79,804	+447
Morocco	77,434	−1,978
Saudi Arabia	76,840	+2,166
Malaysia	76,712	−5,844
Cameroon	72,634	−5,374
former Czechoslovakia	68,312	+3,960
Bulgaria	66,950	−5,239
Uzbekistan	65,216	−3,296
Hungary	64,852	−2,413
Democratic Republic of the Congo	60,512	+/−
Yemen	58,627	−3,795
Belarus	57,315	−13,654
Barbados	52,279	−1,097
Sri Lanka	51,695	−305
Sudan	51,351	−1,300
Eritrea	49,355	+4,245
Uruguay	48,900	+2,638
Fiji	48,710	+5,195
Moldova	46,388	−1,379
Sierra Leone	45,506	−2,328
Belize	44,364	−2,923
Uganda	44,150	+/−
Sweden	43,506	−6,236
Switzerland	42,958	+8,536
Bahamas	40,067	+10,851
Austria	39,083	+100
Serbia	39,020	+1,585
Republic of the Congo	38,932	+/−
Croatia	37,044	−1,941
Cape Verde	36,410	−663
Dominica	36,372	−721
Singapore	33,736	−466
Kazakhstan	33,438	+5,148
Lithuania	32,655	−445
Belgium	32,323	−3,431
Denmark	31,872	+2,541
Kuwait	31,113	−4,494
Senegal	30,828	+/−
North Macedonia	30,359	+4,456
Micronesia	30,136	+/−
Grenada	29,722	−11,288
Latvia	23,300	−2,039
Zimbabwe	20,519	+/−
Norway	20,143	−4,928

Effects of immigration

Main article: Effects of immigration to the United States

Mexican immigrants march for more rights in Northern California's largest city, San Jose (2006).

Immigration to the United States significantly increases the population. The Census Bureau estimates that the US population will increase from 317 million in 2014 to 417 million in 2060 with immigration, when nearly 20% will be foreign-born. In particular, the population of of Hispanic and Asian Americans is significantly increased by immigration, with both populations expected to see major growth. Overall, the Pew Report predicts the population of the United States will rise from 296 million in 2005 to 441 million in 2065, but only to 338 million with no immigration. The prevalence of immigrant segregation has brought into question the accuracy of describing the United States as a melting pot. Immigration to the United States has also increased religious diversity, with Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism growing in the United States due to immigration. Changing demographics as a result of immigration have affected political affiliations. Immigrants are more likely than natives to support the Democratic Party. Interest groups that lobby for and against immigration play a role in immigration policy, with religious, ethnic, and business groups most likely to lobby on issues of immigration.

Immigrants have not been found to increase crime in the United States, and immigrants overall are associated with lower crime rates than natives. Some research even suggests that increases in immigration may partly explain the reduction in the U.S. crime rate. According to one study, sanctuary cities—which adopt policies designed to not prosecute people solely for being an illegal immigrant—have no statistically meaningful effect on crime. Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of immigrants among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which contributes to a higher number of convictions for immigrants. Crimmigration has emerged as a field in which critical immigration scholars conceptualize the current immigration law enforcement system.

Increased immigration to the United States has historically caused discrimination and racial unrest. Areas with higher minority populations may be subject to increased policing and harsher sentencing. Faculty in educational facilities have been found to be more responsive toward white students, though affirmative action policies may cause colleges to favor minority applicants. Evidence also shows the existence of racial discrimination in the housing market and the labor market. Discrimination also exists between different immigrant groups. Most immigrants fully assimilate into the United States within a span of 20 years.

Immigration has been found to have little impact on the health of natives. Researchers have also found what is known as the "healthy immigrant effect", in which immigrants in general tend to be healthier than individuals born in the U.S. However, some illnesses are believed to have been introduced to the United States or caused to increase by immigration. Immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to have a medical visit labeled uncompensated care.

A significant proportion of American scientists and engineers are immigrants. Graduate students are more likely to be immigrants than undergraduate students, as immigrants often complete undergraduate training in their native country before immigrating. 33% of all U.S. Ph.D.s in science and engineering were awarded to foreign-born graduate students as of 2004.

Economic effects

Garment factories in Manhattan's Chinatown

Further information: Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the United States and Immigration policies of American labor unions

High-skilled immigration and low-skilled immigration have both been found to make economic conditions better for the average immigrant and the average American. The overall impact of immigration on the economy tends to be minimal. Research suggests that diversity has a net positive effect on productivity and economic prosperity. Contributions by immigrants through taxation and the economy have been found to exceed the cost of services they use. Overall immigration has not had much effect on native wage inequality but low-skill immigration has been linked to greater income inequality in the native population. Labor unions have historically opposed immigration over economic concerns.

Immigrants have also been found to raise economic productivity, as they are more likely to take jobs that natives are unwilling to do. Research indicates that immigrants are more likely to work in risky jobs than U.S.-born workers, partly due to differences in average characteristics, such as immigrants' lower English language ability and educational attainment. Refugees have been found to integrate more slowly into the labor market than other immigrants, but they have also been found to increase government revenue overall. Immigration has also been correlated with increased innovation and entrepreneurship, and immigrants are more likely to start businesses than native Americans.

Undocumented immigrants have also been found to have a positive effect on economic conditions in the United States. According to NPR in 2005, about 3% of illegal immigrants were working in agriculture, and the H-2A visa allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. States that imposed harsher immigration laws were found to suffer significant economic losses.

Public opinion

The ambivalent feeling of Americans toward immigrants is shown by a positive attitude toward groups that have been visible for a century or more, and much more negative attitude toward recent arrivals. For example, a 1982 national poll by the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut showed respondents a card listing a number of groups and asked, "Thinking both of what they have contributed to this country and have gotten from this country, for each one tell me whether you think, on balance, they've been a good or a bad thing for this country", which produced the results shown in the table. "By high margins, Americans are telling pollsters it was a very good thing that Poles, Italians, and Jews immigrated to America. Once again, it's the newcomers who are viewed with suspicion. This time, it's the Mexicans, the Filipinos, and the people from the Caribbean who make Americans nervous."

In a 2002 study, which took place soon after the September 11 attacks, 55% of Americans favored decreasing legal immigration, 27% favored keeping it at the same level, and 15% favored increasing it.

In 2006, the immigration-reduction advocacy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies released a poll that found that 68% of Americans think U.S. immigration levels are too high, and just 2% said they are too low. They also found that 70% said they are less likely to vote for candidates that favor increasing legal immigration. In 2004, 55% of Americans believed legal immigration should remain at the current level or increased and 41% said it should be decreased. The less contact a native-born American has with immigrants, the more likely they would have a negative view of immigrants.

One of the most important factors regarding public opinion about immigration is the level of unemployment; anti-immigrant sentiment is where unemployment is highest, and vice versa.

Surveys indicate that the U.S. public consistently makes a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, and generally views those perceived as "playing by the rules" with more sympathy than immigrants who have entered the country illegally.

According to a Gallup poll in July 2015, immigration is the fourth most important problem facing the United States and seven percent of Americans said it was the most important problem facing America today. In March 2015, another Gallup poll provided insight into American public opinion on immigration; the poll revealed that 39% of people worried about immigration "a great deal". A January poll showed that only 33% of Americans were satisfied with the current state of immigration in America.

Before 2012, a majority of Americans supported securing United States borders compared to dealing with illegal immigrants in the United States. In 2013, that trend has reversed and 55% of people polled by Gallup revealed that they would choose "developing a plan to deal with immigrants who are currently in the U.S. illegally". Changes regarding border control are consistent across party lines, with the percentage of Republicans saying that "securing U.S. borders to halt flow of illegal immigrants" is extremely important decreasing from 68% in 2011 to 56% in 2014. Meanwhile, Democrats who chose extremely important shifted from 42% in 2011 to 31% in 2014. In July 2013, 87% of Americans said they would vote in support of a law that would "allow immigrants already in the country to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements including paying taxes, having a criminal background check and learning English". However, in the same survey, 83% also said they would support the tightening of U.S. border security.

Donald Trump's campaign for presidency focused on a rhetoric of reducing illegal immigration and toughening border security. In July 2015, 48% of Americans thought that Donald Trump would do a poor job of handling immigration problems. In November 2016, 55% of Trump's voters thought that he would do the right thing regarding illegal immigration. In general, Trump supporters are not united upon how to handle immigration. In December 2016, Trump voters were polled and 60% said that "undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who meet certain requirements should be allowed to stay legally".

American opinion regarding how immigrants affect the country and how the government should respond to illegal immigration have changed over time. In 2006, out of all U.S. adults surveyed, 28% declared that they believed the growing number of immigrants helped American workers and 55% believed that it hurt American workers. In 2016, those views had changed, with 42% believing that they helped and 45% believing that they hurt. The PRRI 2015 American Values Atlas showed that between 46% and 53% of Americans believed that "the growing number of newcomers from other countries ... strengthens American society". In the same year, between 57% and 66% of Americans chose that the U.S. should "allow [immigrants living in the U.S. illegally] a way to become citizens provided they meet certain requirements".

In February 2017, the American Enterprise Institute released a report on recent surveys about immigration issues. In July 2016, 63% of Americans favored the temporary bans of immigrants from areas with high levels of terrorism and 53% said the U.S. should allow fewer refugees to enter the country. In November 2016, 55% of Americans were opposed to building a border wall with Mexico. Since 1994, Pew Research center has tracked a change from 63% of Americans saying that immigrants are a burden on the country to 27%.

The Trump administraton's zero-tolerance policy was reacted to negatively by the public. One of the main concerns was how detained children of illegal immigrants were treated. Due to very poor conditions, a campaign was begun called "Close the Camps". Detainment facilities were compared to concentration and internment camps.

After the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021, an NPR/Ipsos poll (±4.6%) found 69% of Americans supported resettling in the United States Afghans who had worked with the U.S., with 65% support for Afghans who "fear repression or persecution from the Taliban". There was lower support for other refugees: 59% for those "fleeing from civil strife and violence in Africa", 56% for those "fleeing from violence in Syria and Libya", and 56% for "Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty". 57% supported the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy, and 55% supported legalizing the status of those illegally brought to the U.S. as children (as proposed in the DREAM Act).

Religious responses

Religious figures in the United States have stated their views on the topic of immigration as informed by their religious traditions.

• Catholicism – In 2018, Catholic leaders stated that asylum-limiting laws proposed by the Trump administration were immoral. Some bishops considered imposing sanctions (known as "canonical penalties") on church members who have participated in enforcing such policies.
• Judaism – American Jewish rabbis from various denominations have stated that their understanding of Judaism is that immigrants and refugees should be welcomed, and even assisted. The exception would be if there is significant economic hardship or security issues faced by the host country or community, in which case immigration may be limited, discouraged or even prohibited altogether. Some liberal denominations place more emphasis on the welcoming of immigrants, while Conservative, Orthodox and Independent rabbis also consider economic and security concerns. Some provide moral arguments for both the right of country to enforce immigration standards as well as for providing some sort of amnesty for illegal migrants.

Legal issues

Main article: Immigration policy of the United States

A U.S. green card, a document confirming permanent resident status for eligible immigrants, including refugees, political asylum seekers, family-sponsored migrants, employment-based workers and diversity immigrants (DV).

Laws concerning immigration and naturalization include the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT), the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), the Naturalization Act of 1790, the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. AEDPA and IIRARA exemplify many categories of criminal activity for which immigrants, including green card holders, can be deported and have imposed mandatory detention for certain types of cases. The Johnson-Reed Act limited the number of immigrants and the Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration from China altogether.

Refugees are able to gain legal status in the United States through asylum, and a specified number of legally-defined refugees, who either apply for asylum overseas or after arriving in the U.S., are admitted annually. In 2014, the number of asylum seekers accepted into the U.S. was about 120,000. By comparison, about 31,000 were accepted in the UK and 13,500 in Canada. Asylum offices in the United States receive more applications for asylum than they can process every month and every year, and these continuous applications cause a significant backlog.

Removal proceedings are considered administrative proceedings under the authority of the United States Attorney General, and thus part of the executive branch rather than the judicial branch of government. in removal proceedings in front of an immigration judge, cancellation of removal is a form of relief that is available for some long-time residents of the United States. Eligibility may depend on time spent in the United States, criminal record, or family in the country. Members of Congress may submit private bills granting residency to specific named individuals. The United States allows immigrant relatives of active duty military personnel to reside in the United States through a green card.

As of 2015, there are estimated to be 11 to 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, making up about 5% of the civilian labor force. Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, unauthorized immigrants that arrived as children were granted exemptions to immigration law.

Most immigration proceedings are civil matters, though criminal charges are applicable when evading border enforcement, committing fraud to gain entry, or committing identity theft to gain employment. Due process protections under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution have been found to apply to immigration proceedings, but those of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution have not due to their nature as civil matters.

Immigration in popular culture

A cartoon in Puck from 1888 attacked businessmen for welcoming large numbers of low-paid immigrants, leaving the American men unemployed.

The history of immigration to the United States is the history of the country itself, and the journey from beyond the sea is an element found in American folklore, appearing in many works, such as The Godfather, Gangs of New York, "The Song of Myself", Neil Diamond's "America", and the animated feature An American Tail.

From the 1880s to the 1910s, vaudeville dominated the popular image of immigrants, with very popular caricature portrayals of ethnic groups. The specific features of these caricatures became widely accepted as accurate portrayals.

In The Melting Pot (1908), playwright Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) explored issues that dominated Progressive Era debates about immigration policies. Zangwill's theme of the positive benefits of the American melting pot resonated widely in popular culture and literary and academic circles in the 20th century; his cultural symbolism – in which he situated immigration issues – likewise informed American cultural imagining of immigrants for decades, as exemplified by Hollywood films.

The popular culture's image of ethnic celebrities often includes stereotypes about immigrant groups. For example, Frank Sinatra's public image as a superstar contained important elements of the American Dream while simultaneously incorporating stereotypes about Italian Americans that were based in nativist and Progressive responses to immigration.

The process of assimilation has been a common theme of popular culture. For example, "lace-curtain Irish" refers to middle-class Irish Americans desiring assimilation into mainstream society in counterpoint to the older, more raffish "shanty Irish". The occasional malapropisms and social blunders of these upward mobiles were lampooned in vaudeville, popular song, and the comic strips of the day such as Bringing Up Father, starring Maggie and Jiggs, which ran in daily newspapers for 87 years (1913 to 2000). In The Departed (2006), Staff Sergeant Dignam regularly points out the dichotomy between the lace-curtain Irish lifestyle Billy Costigan enjoyed with his mother, and the shanty Irish lifestyle of Costigan's father. In recent years, the popular culture has paid special attention to Mexican immigration; the film Spanglish (2004) tells of a friendship of a Mexican housemaid (played by Paz Vega) and her boss (played by Adam Sandler).

Immigration in literature

Maggie and Jiggs from Bringing Up Father (January 7, 1940).

Novelists and writers have captured much of the color and challenge in their immigrant lives through their writings.

Regarding Irish women in the 19th century, there were numerous novels and short stories by Harvey O'Higgins, Peter McCorry, Bernard O'Reilly and Sarah Orne Jewett that emphasize emancipation from Old World controls, new opportunities and expansiveness of the immigrant experience.

Hladnik studies three popular novels of the late 19th century that warned Slovenes not to immigrate to the dangerous new world of the United States.

Jewish American writer Anzia Yezierska wrote her novel Bread Givers (1925) to explore such themes as Russian-Jewish immigration in the early 20th century, the tension between Old and New World Yiddish culture, and women's experience of immigration. A well established author Yezierska focused on the Jewish struggle to escape the ghetto and enter middle- and upper-class America. In the novel, the heroine, Sara Smolinsky, escapes from New York City's "down-town ghetto" by breaking tradition. She quits her job at the family store and soon becomes engaged to a rich real-estate magnate. She graduates college and takes a high-prestige job teaching public school. Finally Sara restores her broken links to family and religion.

The Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, in the mid-20th century, wrote a series of four novels describing one Swedish family's migration from Småland to Minnesota in the late 19th century, a destiny shared by almost one million people. The author emphasizes the authenticity of the experiences as depicted (although he did change names). These novels have been translated into English (The Emigrants, 1951, Unto a Good Land, 1954, The Settlers, 1961, The Last Letter Home, 1961). The musical Kristina från Duvemåla by ex-ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson is based on this story.

The Immigrant is a musical by Steven Alper, Sarah Knapp, and Mark Harelik. The show is based on the story of Harelik's grandparents, Matleh and Haskell Harelik, who traveled to Galveston, Texas in 1909.

Documentary films

Film about historical immigration to America from ca. 1970

In their documentary How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories, filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini examine the American political system through the lens of immigration reform from 2001 to 2007. Since the debut of the first five films, the series has become an important resource for advocates, policy-makers and educators.

That film series premiered nearly a decade after the filmmakers' landmark documentary film Well-Founded Fear which provided a behind-the-scenes look at the process for seeking asylum in the United States. That film still marks the only time that a film-crew was privy to the private proceedings at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), where individual asylum officers ponder the often life-or-death fate of immigrants seeking asylum.

In the documentary "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller", it was argued that weapons smuggling from the United States contributed to insecurity in Latin America, itself triggering more migration to the United States.

Overall approach to regulation

University of North Carolina law professor Hiroshi Motomura has identified three approaches the United States has taken to the legal status of immigrants in his book Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States. The first, dominant in the 19th century, treated immigrants as in transition; in other words, as prospective citizens. As soon as people declared their intention to become citizens, they received multiple low-cost benefits, including the eligibility for free homesteads in the Homestead Act of 1869, and in many states, the right to vote. The goal was to make the country more attractive, so large numbers of farmers and skilled craftsmen would settle new lands. By the 1880s, a second approach took over, treating newcomers as "immigrants by contract". An implicit deal existed where immigrants who were literate and could earn their own living were permitted in restricted numbers. Once in the United States, they would have limited legal rights, but were not allowed to vote until they became citizens, and would not be eligible for the New Deal government benefits available in the 1930s. The third and more recent policy is "immigration by affiliation", which Motomura argues is the treatment which depends on how deeply rooted people have become in the country. An immigrant who applies for citizenship as soon as permitted, has a long history of working in the United States, and has significant family ties, is more deeply affiliated and can expect better treatment.

The Statue of Liberty was a common sight to many immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island

The American Dream is the belief that through hard work and determination, any United States immigrant can achieve a better life, usually in terms of financial prosperity and enhanced personal freedom of choice. According to historians, the rapid economic and industrial expansion of the U.S. is not simply a function of being a resource rich, hard working, and inventive country, but the belief that anybody could get a share of the country's wealth if he or she was willing to work hard. This dream has been a major factor in attracting immigrants to the United States.

See also

• Demographics of the United States
• Emigration from the United States
• European colonization of the Americas
• History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States
• How Democracy Works Now: Twelve Stories
• Illegal immigration to the United States
• Immigration policies of American labor unions
• Inequality within immigrant families (United States)
• Nativism (politics), opposition to immigration
• Opposition to immigration
• United States immigration statistics
• Immigrant benefits urban legend, a hoax regarding benefits comparison

References

• Massey, Douglas Steven (2021). "The Bipartisan Origins of White Nationalism". Daedalus. 150 (2): 5–22. doi:10.1162/daed_a_01843. Retrieved May 1, 2021.

Further reading

Surveys

• Anbinder, Tyler. City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). 766 pp.
• Archdeacon, Thomas J. Becoming American: An Ethnic History (1984)
• Bankston, Carl L. III and Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, eds. Immigration in U.S. History Salem Press, (2006)
• Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed. (2001). Making it in America: A Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576070987. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) short scholarly biographies With bibliographies; 448 pp.
• Bodnar, John. The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America Indiana University Press, (1985)
• Daniels, Roger. Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850 University of Washington Press, (1988)
• Daniels, Roger. Coming to America 2nd ed. (2005)
• Daniels, Roger. Guarding the Golden Door : American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882 (2005)
• Diner, Hasia. The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004)
• Dinnerstein, Leonard, and David M. Reimers. Ethnic Americans: a history of immigration (1999) online
• Gerber, David A. American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction (2011).
• Gjerde, Jon, ed. Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History (1998).
• Glazier, Michael, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America (1999).
• Jones, Maldwyn A. American immigration (1960) online
• Joselit, Jenna Weissman. Immigration and American religion (2001) online
• Parker, Kunal M. Making Foreigners: Immigration and Citizenship Law in America, 1600–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Sowell, Thomas. Ethnic America: A History (1981).
• Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980).

Before 1920

• Alexander, June Granatir. Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1870–1920: How the Second Great Wave of Immigrants Made Their Way in America (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007. xvi, 332 pp.)
• Berthoff, Rowland Tappan. British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950 (1953).
• Briggs, John. An Italian Passage: Immigrants to Three American Cities, 1890–1930 Yale University Press, (1978).
• Diner, Hasia. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration (2003).
• Dudley, William, ed. Illegal immigration: opposing viewpoints (2002) online
• Eltis, David; Coerced and Free Migration: Global Perspectives (2002) emphasis on migration to Americas before 1800.
• Greene, Victor R. A Singing Ambivalence: American Immigrants Between Old World and New, 1830–1930 (2004), covering musical traditions.
• Isaac Aaronovich Hourwich. Immigration and Labor: The Economic Aspects of European Immigration to the United States (1912) (full text online)
• Joseph, Samuel; Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881 to 1910 Columbia University Press, (1914).
• Kulikoff, Allan; From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers (2000), details on colonial immigration.
• Meagher, Timothy J. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History. (2005).
• Miller, Kerby M. Emigrants and Exiles (1985), influential scholarly interpretation of Irish immigration
• Motomura, Hiroshi. Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States (2006), legal history.
• Pochmann, Henry A. and Arthur R. Schultz; German Culture in America, 1600–1900: Philosophical and Literary Influences (1957).
• Waters, Tony. Crime and Immigrant Youth Sage Publications (1999), a sociological analysis.
• U.S. Immigration Commission, Abstracts of Reports, 2 vols. (1911); the full 42-volume report is summarized (with additional information) in Jeremiah W. Jenks and W. Jett Lauck, The Immigrant Problem (1912; 6th ed. 1926)
• Wittke, Carl. We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant (1939), covers all major groups
• Yans-McLaughlin, Virginia ed. Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics Oxford University Press. (1990)

Recent: post 1965

• Beasley, Vanessa B. ed. Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, And Immigration (2006)
• Bogen, Elizabeth. Immigration in New York (1987)
• Bommes, Michael and Andrew Geddes. Immigration and Welfare: Challenging the Borders of the Welfare State (2000)
• Borjas, George J. ed. Issues in the Economics of Immigration (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report) (2000).
• Borjas, George. Friends or Strangers (1990)
• Borjas, George J (2002). "Welfare Reform and Immigrant Participation in Welfare Programs". International Migration Review. 36 (4): 1093–1123. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2002.tb00119.x. S2CID 153858736.
• Briggs, Vernon M., Jr. Immigration Policy and the America Labor Force. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
• Briggs, Vernon M., Jr. Mass Immigration and the National Interest (1992)
• Cafaro, Philip. How Many Is Too Many? The Progressive Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States. University of Chicago Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0226190655
• Cooper, Mark A. Moving to the United States of America and Immigration. 2008.
• Egendorf, Laura K., ed. Illegal immigration : an opposing viewpoints guide (2007) online
• Fawcett, James T., and Benjamin V. Carino. Pacific Bridges: The New Immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1987.
• Foner, Nancy. In A New Land: A Comparative View Of Immigration (2005)
• Garland, Libby. After They Closed the Gate: Jewish Illegal Immigration to the United States, 1921–1965. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
• Levinson, David and Melvin Ember, eds. American Immigrant Cultures 2 vol (1997).
• Lowe, Lisa. Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics (1996)
• Meier, Matt S. and Gutierrez, Margo, eds. The Mexican American Experience : An Encyclopedia (2003) (ISBN 0-313-31643-0)
• Mohl, Raymond A. "Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-twentieth-century Alabama" Alabama Review 2002 55(4): 243–74. ISSN 0002-4341
• Portes, Alejandro, and Robert L. Bach. Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985.
• Portes, Alejandro; Böröcz, József (1989). "Contemporary Immigration: Theoretical Perspectives on Its Determinants and Modes of Incorporation" (PDF). International Migration Review. 23 (3): 606–30. doi:10.2307/2546431. JSTOR 2546431. PMID 12282796.
• Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén Rumbaut. Immigrant America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990.
• Reimers, David. Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America. New York: Columbia University Press, (1985).
• Smith, James P., and Barry Edmonston, eds. The Immigration Debate: Studies on the Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (1998), online version
• Waters, Tony. Crime and Immigrant Youth Thousand Oaks: Sage 1999.
• Zhou, Min and Carl L. Bankston III. Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States Russell Sage Foundation. (1998)
• Borjas, George J. Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. xvii, 263 pp. ISBN 0-691-05966-7
• Lamm, Richard D., and Gary Imhoff. The Immigration Time Bomb: the Fragmenting of America, in series, Truman Talley Books. First ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1985. xiii, 271 pp. ISBN 0-525-24337-2

External links

History

• Immigrant Servants Database
• Asian-Nation: Early Asian Immigration to the U.S.
• Irish Catholic Immigration to America
• Scotch-Irish Immigration to Colonial America
• Immigration Archives of Historical Documents, Articles, and Immigrants
• Maurer, Elizabeth. "New Beginnings: Immigrant Women and the American Experience". National Women's History Museum. 2014.

Immigration policy

• Immigration policy reports from the Brookings Institution
• Immigration policy reports from the Urban Institute
• Permanent Legal Immigration to the United States: Policy Overview Congressional Research Service (May 2018)
• A Primer on U.S. Immigration Policy Congressional Research Service (November 2017)

Current immigration

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Cornell University's Legal Information Institute: Immigration
• Yearbook of Immigration Statistics – United States Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics 2004, 2005 editions available.
• "Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2005" M. Hoefer, N. Rytina, C. Campbell (2006) "Population Estimates (August). U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics.

Economic impact

• Abramitzky, Ran; Boustan, Leah (2017). "Immigration in American Economic History". Journal of Economic Literature. 55 (4): 1311–45. doi:10.1257/jel.20151189. PMC 5794227. PMID 29398723.