New Immigrants, Diversity of

Current Trends in Immigration

Immigrants and their children have always played an important role in shaping the history of the United States. Since its inception, the United States has continuously witnessed the arrivals of newcomers. And today, the flow of immigration to the United States remains immensely high. Immigration levels to the United States have been on the rise since the 1990s, when more than 1 million immigrants arrived each year. The 2000 U.S. Census indicated that the level of immigration increased by more than 30% from 1990 to 2000. By the year 2000, the United States had the largest number of immigrants in its history, making up 20% (55.9 million) of the total U.S. population. Immigrant children are currently the fastest growing sector of the U.S. population. Nationwide, one in five children comes from an immigrant household and more than 3.5 million English language learner (ELL) students are enrolled in U.S. schools. These extensive demographic shifts in the United States are connected to the current forces of globalization.

Impacts of Globalization on Immigration

Nicholas Burbules and Carlos Torres (2000) define globalization as a phenomenon in which worldwide social, cultural, political, and economic relations are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. Globalization has generated unprecedented new patterns of large-scale migration—both within and across borders. While immigration is not a new issue, particularly for the United States, the current pattern of immigration is changing the demographic makeup of many nation-states throughout the world, adding to greater levels of racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity. In the United States, the current wave of immigrants differs significantly from those who arrived prior to 1965. The large increase in immigration and the changes in the immigrants' countries of origin mark two important distinctions between the pre- and post-1965 immigration waves to the United States. Between the years 1901 and 1960—when U.S. immigration policies of selective exclusion were in practice—more than 75% of the immigrant population arrived from Europe. Since the Immigration Act of 1965 was enacted by the U.S. Congress, the majority (82.7%) of the immigrants to the United States have been from third world nations, mostly from Latin and South America, Asia, the Caribbean Islands, and growing numbers from Africa (see Table 1). The changes in the countries of origin have altered the racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and religious makeup of U.S. immigrants and their children. In the year 2000, 76% of the immigrant children were Hispanic (52%), Asian (18%), and Black (6%).

Table 1 Immigration by Region and Selected Country of Origin: Fiscal Years 1891–2000

The Diversity of Today's Immigrants

The wave of immigrants who arrived to the United States in the 2000s is heterogeneous in terms of country of origin, ethnicity, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, occupational skill level, and educational background, defying facile generalizations about them. They represent more than a hundred different countries of origin. Immigrants include highly educated, skilled workers who were recruited specifically for their technical and professional expertise. Some groups, such as the Asian Indians, Taiwanese, Korean, and Arab immigrants have more advanced degrees than their U.S.-born counterparts. At the same time, 33% of U.S. immigrants—age 25 and older—have less than a high school education compared to only 13% of the U.S.-born population, as indicated in Table 2. Among the immigrant population—age 25 and older—citizenship status is an important indicator of educational attainment. Table 2 indicates that 76.2% of naturalized citizens have a high school degree or higher compared to only 59.8% of immigrants who have not yet become U.S. citizens.

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