Immigration to the United States: Trends and Contemporary Characteristics

Contemporary immigration to the United States is an issue that has drawn public attention. As is often the case with complex issues, however, it is also among the most misunderstood phenomena. All too often, it has been subjected to simplistic interpretations by political actors driven more by ideological impulse than scientific evidence.

In recent years the American political arena has been characterized by the politicization of immigration, which some define as the “cause” of certain social ills, such as increased unemployment of “American” (native-born) workers, the fiscal crisis of the federal government or a specific state, greater crime, cultural clashes and terrorists attacks. The underlying argument is that current immigration is bad for the American nation and has to be stopped. A solution that is offered includes the transformation of immigration into a matter of national security and the recipe to stop the influx of foreigners includes reducing the number of visas, increasing the number of agents guarding the southern border with Mexico, building a great wall, ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, increasing deportations and detentions, among other solutions.

Alternative interpretations also exist, including the popular declaration that “America is a nation of immigrants”. This interpretation proposes that our nation should welcome immigrants. It draws inspiration from the Emma Lazarus “The New Colossus” poem engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

In the relevant scholarship, competing theories have been developed to explain the existence and evolution of international migration in general and specific cases, such as immigration to the United States. One such interpretation is developed by Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller (2009), who argue that international migration, including immigration to the United States, is best defined as a “complex process in which economic, political, social and cultural factors all work together”. Their theory, presented as the migration systems approach, proposes that

any migratory movement can be seen as the result of interacting macro- and micro-structures. Macro structures refer to large-scale institutional factors, while micro-structures embrace the networks, practices and beliefs of the migrants themselves. These two levels are linked by a number of intermediate mechanisms, referred to as ‘meso-structures’.

In this interpretation Castles and Miller further stress the need to understand migration as “a part of much broader relationships between societies” and as an element of the current process of globalization.

If accurate, then this interpretation by scholars like Castles and Miller suggests that international migration will continue to be present as long as long as the combination of macro and micro factors that created it remain relevant.

Among the factors that have influenced the growth and evolution of immigration to the United States is the transformation of the U.S. economy: from from agrarian to industrial and now information-based. In each stage, the economic development has brought about distinct labor force demands, which have combined with other factors, including U.S. immigration policies, to create the patterns of immigration to the United States that scholars have identified.

Trends in Immigration to the United States

The United States has experienced a series of major waves of immigration over the course of its history. As the graphic below indicates, during the 1700-2000 period scholars have identified five major waves (Brown, Bean and Bachmeier, 2009).

In turn, the Pew Research Center (2015) prefers to divide the 1850-2015 era into three major waves: Northern Europe Wave (1850-1889); the Southern/ Eastern European Wave (1890-1919); the Modern Era (1965-2015).

According to the Pew Research Center (2015), immigration from 1965 to 2065 is a century dominated by two principal places of origin: Latin America and Asia. The trends in immigration to the United States, already evident since 1965, produce a period, roughly from the 1980s to 2050, in which Latinos  constituted the most numerous immigrant group. This pattern is already evolving and will lead over the course of the next decades to a consolidation of Asia as the principal place of origin of immigrants until at least 2065.

Sources:

Castles, Stephen and Mark J. Miller (2009) The Age of Migration (New York: The Guilford Press).

Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, Vol. XXXII, Number 4, Winter 2008-09.

Pew Research Center, “Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065”. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/modern-immigration-wave-brings-59-million-to-u-s-driving-population-growth-and-change-through-2065/