According to the 2012 American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. immigrant population stood at approximately 40.8 million, or 13 percent of the total U.S. population of 313.9 million (Nwosu, C., Batalova, J., & Auclair, G., 2014). Along with its large number, immigration has had a very significant impact on the U.S society, and especially it has increased the diversity of the United States in many ways. In particular, there are large differences in poverty rates across racial groups. In that regard, according to the 2010 Census Bureau Reports, in 2009, the poverty rate was 9.9% for Whites, 12.1% for Asians, 26.6% for Hispanics, and 27.4% for Blacks. This data illustrates that Hispanics and Blacks experience disproportionately high percentages of poverty in comparison to Whites and Asians counterparts.
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2)
We all come from different places and ethnicities, and because of having a dream, people fled away from their home to seek for something to make their life better. Going to a country like United States, is not only a dream but also, an opportunity because many people think that America is the best place to settle in, where work, and education are an easy access. Though this statement is partly true, it is not that easy. Everyone envied because America is a great nation because it's a country of opportunity, but a part of it also is a mixture of feelings that are hard to explain especially if you are immigrant. Every day in your life, you are fighting for something in order to fit in and survive. However, in the process of fitting in or blending to a certain place, people, and culture, it requires a lot of personal choices and a lot of effort as an immigrant. It does not only affect you as a human, but also it draws a lot of attention, conflicts and tension between the government and community. Most immigrants have a harder time to adjust or assimilate even though they speak fluent English and eat American foods. Whenever you see a person of white complexion, people assumed that blue eyes and blonde hair are the characteristics of an American, though these are how we perceived American long time ago, this are still the standards of a few now and doesn’t make a big change at all. The judgement of how a person look physically and how they
“According to estimates from the 2013 ACS, the U.S. immigrant population stood at more than 41.3 million, or 13 percent, of the total U.S. population of 316.1 million. Between 2012 and 2013, the foreign-born population increased by about 523,000, or 1.3 percent. U.S. immigrants and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 80 million persons, or one-quarter of the overall U.S. population.”People for in other countries that come to America are known as immigrants. They can be categorized as illegal or legal immigrants. Recently there has been a case (Texas v. United States) which corresponds with immigration in the United States of America. Now, it is seen as inhumane to break up families in the United sates, It’s illegal for states to sue the U.S., and the general public does not need time to react to the new program in motion.
Illegal immigration is an unintend¬ed result of federal immigration restric¬tions from the shortage of green cards (permanent residence) and temporary work visas available for migrants (Nowrasteh 2). Currently, 73% of the 11.5 million illegal immigrants nationally are located in ten states, including Arizona (Nowrasteh 2). Between 2000 and 2008, Arizona experienced a large increase of illegal immigrants from 330,000 to 560,000 (Nowrasteh 2). The costs of the housing bust and the Great Recession
According to Jens Krogstad and Jeffrey Passel, senior demographers at the Pew Research Center, there were 11 million illegal (undocumented) immigrants living in the US in 2014 of 320 million and that number is growing by 700,000 a year.
According to Migration Policy institute, the Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey, the US immigrant population was 38,517,234, or 12.5 percent of the total US population. They also state that nearly one-quarter of the 7.9 million children under 17 in 2009 had at least one immigrant parent. It is important to note that these
The population in Texas is growing by leaps and bounds. According to The Texas Politics Project (2017), “the state’s population grew by 7.2 percent – over 1.8 million people – between 2010 and 2014” (p. 11.10). This growing population also brings with it great diversity, including a growing number of Hispanics. When discussing the population growth that is occurring in Texas, Long (2014) states that, “Hispanic populations have grown rapidly far from the U.S.-Mexico border,
Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to end up in prison. As Carroll writes, “According to the U.S. census, blacks are incarcerated five times more than whites are, and hispanics are nearly twice as likely to be incarcerated as whites. Hispanic men are 2.4 times more likely, to a sentencing project analysis of the data”. Given these statistics, the most important question is: why is the disparity so great between whites, blacks and Hispanics in terms of the prison population.
Members of the immigrant and juvenile population also find themselves being classified in this group, but this section focuses on how the incarceration rates disproportionately affect members of the African American community. Many Americans are serving time in prison on non-violent offense charges. As the rates of incarceration rise, so too has the number of private prisons increased from holding 7000 inmates in 1990 to holding 126,000 in 2010 (Brickner and Diaz). African Americans make up half of the state and federal prison population, “There are currently more black people under correctional control–either in prison or jail or on probation or parole–than were in slavery in 1850” (Jackson et al.). Because of the aforementioned war on drugs, blacks are targeted, arrested, and incarcerated on drug possession charges at higher rates than any other demographic “… there were 193 white American prison inmates per 100,000 whites, 688 Hispanic prison inmates per 100,000 Hispanic, and 1,571 African American prison inmates per 100,000 African American” (Irwin, Schiraldi and Ziedenberg 137). The ones who benefited from this disproportion were the private prison industries who took advantage of the influx of prisoners being supplied to the public sector prison because of the war on drugs. The members of the black community become the
Here are some stunning facts about immigration in the U.S.: 10-20 million illegal aliens presently roam the U.S. and the illegal alien’s population doubled in the 1990’s. They counted about 5.1% of the U.S. labor force, which is a huge amount. There are 72000 aliens arrested each year for drug use offenses and they counted about 25% of the federal prison population. The
In 2013, there were an estimated 41.3 million immigrants living in the United States. (Krogstad, 2014). According to present estimates, this foreign-born population consists of 18.6 million naturalized US citizens and 22.1 million noncitizens (Cenato, 2013). Among the noncitizens, approximately 13.3 million are permanent legal residents, while 11.3 million (28%) are unauthorized migrants. (Cenato, 2013). The majority of unauthorized immigrants are primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries, they live Texas, Florida, California, New York and Arizona (Zong et. al 2015).
Every year, around one million people are immigrating into the United States both legally and illegally. As of now nearly 40 million immigrants live in the United States; 11.5 million of which came to the country illegally (CNN). That is nearly thirteen percent of the total United States population. The role the United States government plays in the handling of immigration from foreign countries both legal and illegal, plays a vital role in the security of the people of the United States and
If they reached the land before they were caught by the authorities, they were granted political refugee status (9). This, as well as other circumstances helped cause the number of foreign-born migrants to increase eighty-one percent in the 1990s-2000s (3). More than half of the Hispanic population resides in the following states: California, Texas, and Florida, with California having the highest number of immigrants (2). One main component of California’s high number of Hispanic immigrants is due to the entrance of migrants illegally. The National Research Council claimed that in the 1990s, “more than 200,000 immigrants came into the United States illegally” (7). With eighty percent of Latin Americans becoming naturalized US citizens and nineteen percent not becoming US citizens before the 1970s, the numbers were reversed after the 1970s and the latter became predominant (12). Legal immigration as well as illegal immigration of Hispanics were both non-prevalent in early American history; nevertheless, with the progression of years and opportunities, many Latin Americans came to America seeking jobs and a better life for their family.
Immigration is important for the growth of the economy because it’s a major contributions towards the economy. The United States has often been referred to as a global melting pot due to its assimilation of diverse cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities. Today, this metaphor may be an understatement. Edstam and Carlson an immigration activists reports that, without the extra work and consumption provided by immigrants, the economy of the United States would collapse. They include in the article saying that, despite the common notion that immigrants steal jobs from Americans, the 2005 Economic Report shows that The Federal Reserve in fact recently raised its benchmark interest rate because it observed a strengthening U.S. economy with reduced unemployment, rising wages and some labor shortages Immigrants continue to strengthen local economies through their higher productivity and increased consumption (Edstam and Carlson). An article by Savajlenka added, Studies show that competition with American workers among immigrants is very minimal and limited to the unskilled labor. Therefore, Savajlenka immigration analyst states that, “Numerous studies have documented that immigrants are needed to replace the large number of retiring Baby Boomers and that the future growth of the U.S. workforce will come from immigrants and their children” (Savajlenka). This is an additional like a shot in occupations that presently use several older employees, like janitorial and truck driving