About USA

Immigration to the United States

The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

Prior to 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Western Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Eastern European immigration. The civil rights movement led to the replacement of these ethnic quotas with per-country limits. Since then, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled.

Place of birth for the foreign-born population in the United States

Top ten countries	2015	2010	2000	1990
Mexico	11,643,298	11,711,103	9,177,487	4,298,014
China	2,676,697	2,166,526	1,518,652	921,070
India	2,389,639	1,780,322	1,022,552	450,406
Philippines	1,982,369	1,777,588	1,369,070	912,674
El Salvador	1,352,357	1,214,049	817,336	465,433
Vietnam	1,300,515	1,240,542	988,174	543,262
Cuba	1,210,674	1,104,679	872,716	736,971
Dominican Republic	1,063,239	879,187	687,677	347,858
South Korea	1,060,019	1,100,422	864,125	568,397
Guatemala	927,593	830,824	480,665	225,739
All of Latin America		21,224,087	16,086,974	8,407,837
All Immigrants	43,289,646	39,955,854	31,107,889	19,767,316

Source: 1990, 2000 and 2010 decennial Census and 2015 American Community Survey.

The first significant European immigration wave, spanning the 16^th to 18^th centuries, consisted mostly of settlers from the British Isles attracted by economic opportunity and religious freedom. These early immigrants were a mix of well-to-do individuals and indentured servants. Irish, German, and Scandinavian immigrants arriving during the 1840s and 1850s made up the second wave of European immigration, fleeing famine, religious persecution, and political conflicts. Unlike the first Europeans, who were mostly Protestants, the new arrivals were overwhelmingly Catholic. They came from much poorer backgrounds and were younger and less skilled.

After a pause in European immigration during the U.S. Civil War, more than 20 million immigrants arrived—primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe—between 1880 and 1920. Most Southern European immigrants were motivated by economic opportunity in the United States, while Eastern Europeans (primarily Jews) fled religious persecution. World War I slowed European immigration, and the national-origin quotas established in 1921 and 1924—which gave priority to Western and Northern Europeans—coupled with the Great Depression and the onset of World War II brought immigration from Europe to a near halt.

US State:	Abbreviation:
Alabama	AL
Alaska	AK
Arizona	AZ
Arkansas	AR
California	CA
Colorado	CO
Connecticut	CT
Delaware	DE
Florida	FL
Georgia	GA
Hawaii	HI
Idaho	ID
Illinois	IL
Indiana	IN
Iowa	IA
Kansas	KS
Kentucky	KY
Louisiana	LA
Maine	ME
Maryland	MD
Massachusetts	MA
Michigan	MI
Minnesota	MN
Mississippi	MS
Missouri	MO
Montana	MT
Nebraska	NE
Nevada	NV
New Hampshire	NH
New Jersey	NJ
New Mexico	NM
New York	NY
North Carolina	NC
North Dakota	ND
Ohio	OH
Oklahoma	OK
Oregon	OR
Pennsylvania	PA
Rhode Island	RI
South Carolina	SC
South Dakota	SD
Tennessee	TN
Texas	TX
Utah	UT
Vermont	VT
Virginia	VA
Washington	WA
West Virginia	WV
Wisconsin	WI
Wyoming	WY
Commonwealth/Territory:	Abbreviation:
District of Columbia	DC
Marshall Islands	MH
Military “State”:	Abbreviation:
Armed Forces Africa	AE
Armed Forces Americas	AA
Armed Forces Canada	AE
Armed Forces Europe	AE
Armed Forces Middle East	AE
Armed Forces Pacific	AP

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