The journeys made by immigrants before and after they arrive in the United States.
More than 45 million people, as of the most recent Census estimates, are foreign-born and living in the United States.
That's roughly the same percentage (13.6%) as in the United States a century ago. However, the origins and destinations of immigrants to the United States have changed dramatically over time.
We will examine the development of these major immigration tendencies.
Mexicans have been the most numerous foreign nationals living in the United States for decades. That's what the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute has been saying since 1980. And the corridor between Mexico and the United States is the world's busiest.
However, the overall population of Mexican immigrants in the United States has declined for over a decade.
In 2021, it was predicted that about 10.7 million Mexican immigrants would reside in the United States, about a million fewer than in the previous decade.
Meanwhile, MPI reports increased immigration from countries like India and China.
One expert told CNN last year that the reasons immigrants come to the United States are as diverse as the countries they came from. A number of them are on the lookout for better employment prospects. Some are running away from persecution or natural disasters. Others are coming hoping to find relatives already living in the country.
MPI found that Latin America or Asia are the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants to the United States.
Both lawful permanent residents and those who entered the country illegally are counted in these surveys.
The top countries of origin for people living in the United States without proper documentation changed slightly. According to a 2021 Department of Homeland Security report, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Honduras, and China were the top six countries of origin for illegal immigrants.
However, most immigrants currently residing in the United States do so legally.
According to the most recent numbers from the Pew Research Centre, roughly 10.5 million undocumented immigrants currently reside in the United States. That means that the vast majority of non-citizens currently residing in the United States are doing so following the law (77%).
A different picture emerges if we flashback to the 1960s.
Only sometimes has Mexico been number one. In 1960, for instance, a very different picture of immigrants to the United States emerged.
Italians, followed by Germans and Canadians, made up the bulk of immigrants back then, as the Migration Policy Institute reported.
What caused the drastic shift? For many years, immigrants from northern and western Europe were given preference under a national original quota system passed by Congress in 1924. A new system was established in 1965 thanks to the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gave preference to immigrants with advanced degrees or close relatives already living in the country. Because of that, millions of people who weren't European could immigrate to the United States.
Professor of American studies at Amherst College Pawan Dhingra told CNN in 2020 that the event "fundamentally changed the country's demographics."
However, decades after the law was passed, immigration skyrocketed, largely due to family reunification.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, the 9.6 million immigrants in the United States comprised only 5% of the population. Over 45 million immigrants now make up almost 14 percent of the population.
Although the number of immigrants to the United States has reached a record high, the percentage of the foreign-born population was higher in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
An increasing number of immigrants have settled in most states.
Changes have occurred not only in the demographics of those migrating to the United States. The final destinations of these people have also changed significantly.
New York City, Chicago, and Boston are three examples of major cities with long histories as immigration hubs. However, a wider swath of places in the United States has become gateways home to growing immigrant populations in the past decade or more.
The largest immigrant populations are in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.
However, the overall immigrant population in each state only provides partial information. The percentage of foreign-born residents in the total population varies widely between states. Immigrants, for instance, account for nearly 19% of the population in Hawaii.
A new Bush Institute study found that many immigrants are moving away from traditional gateway cities.
The study found that "immigrants making secondary moves within the United States are disproportionately choosing the same places as native-born people," meaning large metropolitan areas with low housing costs and business and tax incentives for expansion.
For a long time, the Northeast and Midwest were the primary destinations for newcomers. However, the newest data from the Pew Research Centre shows that the Western and Southern regions are now home to roughly two-thirds of all immigrants.
Some states' immigrant populations have grown more rapidly in recent years.
According to the Bush Institute's research, potential immigrants think about factors like job availability, cost of living, proximity to family, and welcoming policies when deciding.
If current trends continue, experts predict that a sizable portion of the United States population will be made up of immigrants in the future.
However, it is difficult to predict where future groups of immigrants may come from or how quickly that milestone will be reached due to geopolitical turmoil worldwide and ongoing divisive debates over immigration in Washington.
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