Immigration Statistics

As in the case of any other developed or developing nation, immigration has been one of the major driving factors when it comes to population growth in the United States. At one point of time, the then President of the United States - Bill Clinton had famously said "the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations." Today, however, things have changed by a significant extent, and immigration which was then given the credit for sculpting the diversity of the nation, is being accused of bringing about a cultural turmoil in the United States, and threatening the American culture. A look at immigration statistics and facts, and you can't help but notice that it is the large-scale illegal immigration in the United States which is adding to the woes of the nation while legal immigration is contributing to its development. Given below are some legal and illegal immigration facts which will act as an eye-opener for many people out there.

Immigration Statistics

In the United States, the concept of immigration has always had its ups and downs, and the large-scale fluctuation during the Great Depression is by far the best example of the same. In 1929, the total number of immigrants who came to the United States were 279,678. The number came down to 23,068 immigrants in 1933, when the depression was at its peak. This was the period wherein the number of people who emigrated from the country was more than those who came here. One of the lesser known immigration facts is that the number of legal immigrants accepted as permanent residents in the United States far exceeds the number of such migrants accepted as legal migrants in all other nations of the world combined. A large part of the credit for the rise in legal migration in the United States over the last two decades goes to the Immigration Act of 1990 proposed by the George H. W. Bush administration.

In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments abolished the quota system which facilitated immigration on the basis on nationality. This reform resulted in large-scale immigration from non-European countries, which was a relatively new trend in America. Eventually, the total number of European immigrants in the United States which accounted for 60 percent in 1970 came down to 15 percent in 2000. This liberalization of immigration policy in 1965 came as a boon for immigrants. A look at the immigration statistics by country of origin reveals that Mexicans - constituting 23 percent of the total number of immigrants in the U.S. top the list of immigrants, followed by Chinese, Filipinos and Indians on the second, third and fourth position respectively. According to the immigration facts and statistics, the number of first generation immigrants in the country, which was 9.6 million in 1970, increased incessantly to become 38 million within a span of four decades.

Illegal Immigration Statistics

Illegal immigration is one of the prime issues of concern in the United States. The 2,000 mile United States-Mexico border has been notorious for illegal immigration since a long time. A look at the illegal immigration statistics reveals that more than 11 million illegal immigrants reside in the United States today. These statistics also revels some startling facts about illegal immigration in the United States. Almost half of the approximately 8 million immigrants who came to the United States between 2000 and 2005 entered illegally. It is very difficult to monitor such illegal influx of migrants, and therefore most of the figures provided in illegal immigration statistics are mere estimates. In fact, the actual number is expected to be much more larger than these estimates. Over the last three decades, the federal administration has introduced as many as seven amnesties for such illegal migrants. In 2009, the federal administration granted legal resident status to around 1.1 million immigrants as its efforts to curb various illegal immigration problems.

That was a significant bit of information about immigration statistics in the United States, with special emphasis on lawful migration of individuals from various countries of the world as well as illegal influx of migrants from the neighboring countries. If the United States Census Bureau estimates are to be believed, the U.S. population will reach the 397 million mark by 2050 if immigration continues at the ongoing rate.