US Immigration Patterns

[seek10]

Here is a interesting pew research paper on US immigration over last 150 years, decade by decade in numbers (w.r.t total population etc.) and maps.

How the origins of America’s immigrants have changed since 1850

In 2022, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. reached a high of 46.1 million, accounting for 13.8% of the population.

www.pewresearch.org

This is one picture that comparing1920 to 2020. But this doesn't represent how it varied each decade w.r.t originating countries.

Why has the immigrant population changed over the years?​

Reasons behind the changes in the U.S. immigrant population since 1965 include:

• A more equitable U.S. immigration law. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act opened up legal immigration from Asia and Latin America. The law it replaced had favored immigrants from Northern and Western Europe and mostly barred those from Asia.
• Unauthorized immigration. Unauthorized immigration to the U.S. began to grow in the 1970s, which made the total number of immigrants go up. Most of those who came before 1982 acquired legal status after the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. However, unauthorized immigrants continued to come in large numbers.
• Further changes in U.S. immigration law. A revision to the 1965 act in 1990 allowed more legal immigrants to enter the U.S. and provided alternative ways for people to immigrate, increasing the diversity of origins.

From wiki

 

[nicklebleu]

Fascinating article, seek10 - thanks for posting.

What is interesting, though, is in the 2022 picture where different people tend to go. That Canadians would settle mostly on the border of Canada kinda makes sense, but why people from India in the Northeast? And some isolated states where on people is predominant?

i wonder if it’s a case of following early settlers from your own country so you already have sort of a preformed network?

 

[seek10]

What is interesting, though, is in the 2022 picture where different people tend to go. That Canadians would settle mostly on the border of Canada kinda makes sense, but why people from India in the Northeast? And some isolated states where on people is predominant?

These pictures only highlight the specific angle of the reality. In this case - where U.S largest immigration population born. drilling down 2022 distribution


See the numbers above. China is 2.23 million ( only .6 million less than India), but there is no China in the picture . same with Philippines and El Salvador. Honduras shown , but it is not in top 5 country people (to US).

'Largest' depends on the specific state's ( or represented geography) population size and what type of work they were doing. Indians migrated more for IT or computer type of work, tend to be needed by corporations that tend to concentrate in big cities. But residency tend to be costly, so tend to reside in neighboring states where residency is easy to manage. NJ (next to NYC), maine (next to Boston) , michigan area, DC Area and California. Note that California is shown as Mexico, as it is large population state. NJ and Maine are relatively small population states. so it comes up in this graph. In any case, more people are migrating to southern states, so demographics change with time.

Industrial economy depends on capitalism and technological breakthrough to support the consumers aka 'demand and supply' . Capitalists wants to make more profit , that relies on cheap labor. Technological breakthrough in a specific location is somewhat 'mysterious' subject. When IT/software needs popped up in 90's, it is India and China has largest pool.

India's largest pool is the result of Nehru's attempt to create 'self reliant' independent country ( neither capitalist nor communist, some where in between) that needed Industrialization. He hoped that he can do it subsidizing the higher education. It's this pool, for which Capitalists went with. Nehru's general dislike of West ( due to colonial past and his sizeable role in Independence) means there no capital or latest technology. It only created 'license raj' as India can't do what Russians (or Stalin) did - to force people to invent at gunpoint.

Here is a interesting video on America's gilded age ( age of industrialization) in the late 19th century when the US immigration is the highest percentage.