The Causes And Factors Of Immigration In The United States

Globally, the United States has been known as "a nation of immigrants" almost from its inception. Beginning in the 1600s with English Puritans and continuing today, America is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration was the major source of U.S. population growth. Looking over our 200+ years we find that to clearly be true, with approximately 1 million immigrants coming to America during the 17th and 18th century. Almost 3 million arrived during the 1860s, and another 3 million in the 1870s. In the next four decades, the number of immigrants rose to over 25 million people, most from various European nations, most arriving in New York or one of the Eastern seaports (Damon, 1981). Despite the politicization, as of 2006, the United States actually was the number one country globally to accept legal immigrants into the country, with a current immigrant population of almost 40 million (Terrazas and Batalova, 2009). In fact, the peak of immigration was 1907, when over 1.2 million Europeans entered the country beginning a push towards legislation limiting immigration in the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 and the 1921 Congressional Quota Act. These immigrants came for two sociological reasons: the push factor (wars, famine, persecution and overpopulation) and the pull factors (jobs and the promise of freedom). Most came by ship, and a passage often cost the equivalent of an entire life's savings causing many

The United States is a country that was built on immigration. The first settlers, Native Americans, represent less than 2% of the total population; the remaining 98% of the population are immigrants or decedents of immigrants. Today, the US still has the highest immigration rate in the world with 757,434 naturalizations in the 2012 fiscal year only (US Naturalizations 2012, Department of Homeland security). People try to immigrate to the United States for many reasons. Some people immigrate because they have been granted a refugee status or asylum and other people immigrate to fulfill their dreams. Immigration has an effect on the American society and economy. The US cannot survive without immigrants.

Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.

The issue of immigration has become a major debate for everyone. Although people argue over the negative impacts of immigrants living in America such as overcrowding, less jobs due to immigrants taking them, drug trafficking, and threatening of American culture, immigrants still have a huge impact in the American society. The United States is by far the largest destination for immigrants, annually receiving over a million legal immigrants and about seven hundred thousand illegal immigrants. Many people come to the United States to get a better life for themselves as well as for the education system for their children.

In 2002, the United States was home to 32.5 million foreign-born individuals. (Gany, Herrera, Avallone, & Changrani, 2006). The United states has often been referred to as the country of Immigrants given the number of people who immigrate here from other countries. Because of immigration, America has become a very multicultural society.

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 migrationpolicy.org, accessed October 16, 2017, “In 2015 (alone), 1.38 million foreign-born individuals moved to the United States, a 2 percent increase from 1.36 million in 2014.”

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 numbers of immigrants to United States has risen from thousands to a record high of one million immigrants by the year

U.S. as an immigration country, has a long history of immigration. It is a complex demographic phenomenon that has been a major source of population growth and cultural change of the United States. People came here because of varies reason, the major reason among them are fleeing crop failure, land and job shortage, rising taxes, and famine. Nearly 12 million people immigrate to the United States between 1870 and 1900, making it the world largest immigrate country.

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

Immigration is the process of entry of individuals into a new country (23). Throughout past centuries, immigration has been a means of discovery and exploration of new lands. In today’s culture, immigration to the United States is an avenue for individuals who wish to start new lives and take advantage of the capitalistic, entrepreneurial system. People from many countries have migrated into the United States. Most recently, the migrants have come from Central and South American countries. These Latin American countries influence America’s society culturally and economically through their language, traditions, and workforce. From the 1990s to the present time, immigration from Latin American countries has more than

In United States of America the diversity if undocumented immigrants is huge. There are immigrants coming from worldwide. The most accounted undocumented immigrants ended in United States is from Mexico, which is about 60% of the undocumented population. Other Latin American countries contributing heavily to the undocumented population

As of 2015, there are 43.3 million immigrants in the U.S. Of the 43.3 million, there are 2.4 million Indian immigrants (Zong, Batalova, 2017). An immigrant is one that goes to a country to live, that is not their natural citizenship. With that being said, with as many Indian immigrants as there is in the U.S, it makes them the second largest immigrant group after Mexicans. There are many reasons why immigration can occur. There are economic, social, political and environmental factors that all contribute to the main reason. These reasons happen everyday and continue to happen more and more often as time goes by. Also, for each of these factors there are specific events that occur.