American immigration (emigration to the United States of America) refers to the movement of non-residents to the United States. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of American history.

The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, religion, economic benefits, job growth, settlement patterns, environmental impact, impact on upward social mobility, levels of criminality, nationalities, political loyalties, moral values, and work habits. As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than any other country in the world. In 2006, the number of immigrants totaled 37.5 million.
Record number of persons, 1,046,539, were naturalized as U.S. citizens in 2008. The leading countries of birth of the new citizens were Mexico, India and the Philippines.
While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, “the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations…” At the 1998 commencement address at Portland State University, U.S. president Bill Clinton voiced support for immigrants, including immigrants from Asia and Latin America when he said that “America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants…They have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people.
Given the distance of North America from Eurasia and the difficulty of travel before commercial airlines, most historical U.S. immigration was risky. Passenger aircraft have facilitated travel to the United States since the 1960s, but migration remains difficult, expensive and dangerous for those who cross the United States–Mexico border illegally.
Recent immigration-related legislation has called for increasing enforcement of existing laws with regard to illegal immigrants, building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) U.S.-Mexico border, or creating a new guest worker program.[citation needed] Through much of 2006, the country and Congress was immersed in a debate about these proposals. As of March 2007, few of these proposals had become law, though a partial border fence was approved.
Many cities, including Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine, have adopted sanctuary ordinances banning police from asking people about their immigration status
Effects of immigration
Demographics
Immigration is now what keeps America growing. According to the UN the typical American woman today bears 1.93 children. That is below the 2.1 “replacement” rate required to keep a population stable over time, absent immigration. The Census Bureau estimates the US population will grow from 281 million in 2000 to 397 mil in 2050 with expected immigration, but only to 328 mil with zero immigration. “If we have zero immigration with today’s low birthrates the American population would eventually begin to shrink.
A new report from the Pew Research Center projects that by 2050, non-Hispanic whites will account for 47% of the population, down from the 2005 figure of 67%.[35] Non-Hispanic whites made up 85% of the population in 1960.[36] It foresees the Hispanic population rising from 14% in 2005 to 29% by 2050.[37] The Asian population is expected to more than triple by 2050. Overall, the population of the United States is due to rise from 296 million in 2005 to 438 million, with 82% of the increase coming from immigrants.
In 35 of the country’s 50 largest cities, non-Hispanic whites were at the last census or are predicted to be in the minority.[39] In California, non-Hispanic whites slipped from 80% of the state’s population in 1970 to 43% in 2006.
Economic
Hispanic immigrants across the United States are being hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis. There is a disproportionate level of foreclosures in some immigrant neighborhoods.
The banking industry provided home loans to undocumented immigrants, viewing it as an untapped resource for growing their own revenue stream.[43] In October 2008, KFYI reported that according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, five million illegal immigrants hold fraudulent home mortgages.[44] The story was later pulled from their website and replaced with a correction.[45] The Phoenix Business Journal cited a HUD spokesman saying there is no basis to news reports that more than 5 million bad mortgages are held by illegal immigants, and that the agency has no data showing the number of illegal immigrants holding foreclosed or bad mortgages.[46] Radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Lee Rodgers repeated a variation of the claim without noting that HUD has reportedly stated that this statistic is false.[47] Roger Hedgecock also repeated the incorrect claim on CNN’s Lou Dobbs show.
At the June 13, 1998, Commencement Address at Portland State University, president Bill Clinton said, “new immigrants are good for America. They are revitalizing our cities…building our new economy…strengthening our ties to the global economy, just as earlier waves of immigrants settled on the new frontier and powered the Industrial Revolution. They are energizing our culture and broadening our vision of the world. They are renewing our most basic values and reminding us all of what it truly means to be an American.”
Opinions vary about the economic effects of immigration. Those who find that immigrants produce a negative effect on the U.S. economy often focus on the difference between taxes paid and government services received and wage-lowering effects among low-skilled native workers, while those who find positive economics effects focus on added productivity and lower costs to consumers for certain goods and services.[51] In a late 1980s study, economists themselves overwhelmingly viewed immigration, including illegal immigration, as a positive for the economy.[52] According to James Smith, a senior economist at Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation and lead author of the United States National Research Council’s study “The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration”, immigrants contribute as much as $10 billion to the U.S. economy each year.[53] The NRC report found that although immigrants, especially those from Latin America, were a net cost in terms of taxes paid versus social services received, overall immigration was a net economic gain due to an increase in pay for higher-skilled workers, lower prices for goods and services produced by immigrant labor, and more efficiency and lower wages for some owners of capital. The report also notes that although immigrant workers compete with domestic workers for some low skilled jobs, some immigrants specialize in activities that otherwise would not exist in an area, and thus are performing services that otherwise would not exist, and thus can be beneficial to all domestic residents[54] About 21 million immigrants, or about 15 percent of the labor force, hold jobs in the United States. However, the number of unemployed is only seven million, meaning that immigrant workers are not taking jobs from domestic workers. Rather, they are doing jobs that would not have existed had the immigrant workers not been in the United States[55]. U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners: Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 indicated that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States grew to nearly 1.6 million in 2002. Those Hispanic-owned businesses generated about $222 billion in revenue.[56] The report notes that the burden of poor immigrants is not born equally among states, and is most heavy in California.[57] Another claim that those supporting current and expanded immigration levels is that immigrants mostly do jobs Americans don’t want. A 2006 Pew Hispanic Center report added evidence to support that claim when they found that increasing immigration levels have not hurt employment prospects for American workers.
Jason Riley notes that because of progressive income taxation, in which the top 1% of earners pay 37% of federal income taxes, 60% of Americans collect more in government services than they pay in. Thus, it is not remarkable that some immigrants would do the same.[59] In any event, the typical immigrant and his children will pay a net $80,000 more in their lifetimes than they collect in government services, according to the NAS.
The Kauffman Foundation’s index of entrepreneurial activity is nearly 40% higher for immigrants than for natives.[61] Immigrants were involved in the founding of many prominent American high-tech companies, such as Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and eBay.
On the poor end of the spectrum, the “New Americans” report found that low-skill low wage immigration does not, on aggregate, lower the wages of most domestic workers. The report also addresses the question of if immigration affects black Americans differently from the population in general: “While some have suspected that blacks suffer disproportionately from the inflow of low-skilled immigrants, none of the available evidence suggests that they have been particularly hard-hit on a national level. Some have lost their jobs, especially in places where immigrants are concentrated. But the majority of blacks live elsewhere, and their economic fortunes are tied to other factors.”
Robert Samuelson points out that poor immigrants strain public services such as local schools and health care. He points out that “from 2000 to 2006, 41 percent of the increase in people without health insurance occurred among Hispanics.”[64] According to the immigration reduction advocacy group Center for Immigration Studies, 25.8% of Mexican immigrants live in poverty — more than double the rate for natives in 1999.[65] In another report, The Heritage Foundation notes that from 1990 to 2006, the number of poor Hispanics increased 3.2 million, from 6 million to 9.2 million.
Brain drain has cost Africa over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually.[67] According to UNDP, “Ethiopia lost 75% of its skilled workforce between 1980 and 1991,” which harms the ability of such nations to get out of poverty. There are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than there are in Ethiopia.[68] The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of computer experts to the U.S.[69] Over 80% of Jamaicans with higher education live abroad.[70] However, it is noted that these nationals pay valuable remittances. In Jamaica, the money sent back amounts to 18% of GNP.
Social
The more contact a native-born American has with immigrants, typically the more positive view of immigrants one has.[72] The less contact a native-born American has with immigrants, the more likely one would have a negative view of immigrants.
Benjamin Franklin opposed German immigration, stating that they would not assimilate into the culture.[73] Irish immigration was opposed in the 1850s by the Nativist/Know Nothing movement, originating in New York in 1843. It was engendered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants. In 1891, a lynch mob stormed a local jail and hanged several Italians following the acquittal of several Sicilian immigrants alleged to be involved in the murder of New Orleans police chief David Hennessy. The Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. Systematic bias against Japanese and German immigrants emerged during and after World War II. Irish and Jewish immigrants were popular targets early in the 20th century and most recently immigrants from Latin American countries are often viewed with hostility. Some Americans have not completely adjusted to the largely non-European immigration and racism does occur. After September 11, many Middle Eastern immigrants and those perceived to be of Middle Eastern origins were targets of hate crimes.
Minority racism, on the other hand, is sometimes considered controversial because of theories of power in society. Racist thinking among and between minority groups does occur,[74][75] examples of this are conflicts between blacks and Korean immigrants (notably in the 1992 Los Angeles Riots) or between African Americans and the mostly non-white Latino immigrants.[76][77] There has been a long running racial tension between African American and Mexican prison gangs and significant riots in California prisons where Mexican inmates and African Americans have targeted each other particularly, based on racial reasons.[78][79] There have been reports of racially motivated attacks against African Americans who have moved into neighborhoods occupied mostly by people of Mexican descent, and vice versa.[80][81] There has also been an increase in violence between European Americans and Latino immigrants, and between African immigrants and African Americans.[82] There are also tensions between native-born Hispanic Americans and newly-arrived Latino immigrants.
Political
Immigrants differ on their political views; however, the Democratic Party is considered to be in a far stronger position among immigrants overall.[84][85] However, immigrants are similar to the broader US population in that their religious affiliation can significantly impact both their social values and votes. Hispanic evangelicals, for example, are even more strongly conservative than non-Hispanic evangelicals [86]. This trend is often similar for Hispanics or others strongly identifying with Catholicism – a religion that strongly opposes abortion and gay marriage.
Health
Another topic that is widely discussed relates to the issue of the health of immigrants and the associated cost to the public of their use of public health services. Immigrants, legal and illegal, use the public health care system, particularly emergency room services. The non-emergency use of emergency rooms ostensibly indicates an incapacity to pay, yet some studies allege disproportionately lower access to — and usage of — unpaid health care by immigrants.[87] For this and other reasons, there have been various disputes about how much immigration is costing the United States public health system.[88] University of Maryland economist and Cato Institute scholar, Julian Lincoln Simon, concluded in 1995 that although overall, immigrants probably pay more into the health system than they take out, this is not likely the case for elderly immigrants and many refugees, who are more dependent on public services for survival.
Immigration from areas of high incidence of disease is thought to have fueled the resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), chagas, and hepatitis in areas of low incidence.[90] According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), TB cases among foreign-born individuals remain disproportionately high, at nearly nine times the rate of U.S.-born persons.[91][92] To reduce the risk of diseases in low-incidence areas, the main countermeasure has been the screening of immigrants on arrival.
HIV/AIDS entered the United States in about 1969 likely through a single infected immigrant from Haiti. Conversely, many new HIV infections in Mexico can be traced back to the United States.
Researchers have found what is called the “healthy immigrant effect,” in which immigrants in general tend to be healthier (mental health, healthy nutrition) than individuals born in the U.S.
Various researchers have criticized the position held by Simon and others that increased U.S. population growth is sustainable. David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, and Mario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), place in their study Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy the maximum U.S. population for a sustainable economy at 200 million. To achieve a sustainable economy the United States must reduce its population by at least one-third. Current U.S. population of more than 300 million and U.S. population growth of approximately three million people each year, partly fueled by immigration, are unsustainable, says study.
Perceived heavy immigration, especially in the southwest, has led to some fears about population pressures on the water supply in some areas. California continues to grow by more than a half million a year and is expected to reach 48 million in 2030.[101] According to the California Department of Water Resources, if more supplies are not found by 2020, residents will face a water shortfall nearly as great as the amount consumed today. Los Angeles is a coastal desert able to support at most one million people on its own water. California is considering using desalination to solve this problem.
Crime
Empirical studies on links between immigration and crime are mixed. Certain studies have suggested that immigrants are underrepresented in criminal statistics.[105] An Op-Ed in The New York Times by Harvard University Professor in Sociology Robert J. Sampson says that immigration of Hispanics may in fact be associated with decreased crime.[106] A 1999 paper by John Hagan and Alberto Palloni estimated that the involvement in crime by Hispanic immigrants are less than that of other citizens.
Immigrants, both legal and illegal do not raise the rate of crime in the United States and native born Americans are five times more likely to be incarcerated than immigrants.[108] In a study released by the non-partisan research group The Public Policy Institute of California immigrants (legal and illegal) were ten times less likely to be incarcerated than native born Americans.
In his 1999 book Crime and Immigrant Youth, sociologist Tony Waters writes that immigrants themselves are less likely to be arrested and incarcerated. He also noted, however, that the children of some immigrant groups are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated. This is a by-product of the strains that emerge between immigrant parents living in poor inner city neighborhoods, and their sons. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, for example, as of 2001, 4% of Hispanic males in their twenties and thirties were in prison or jail, compared with 1.8% of white males. Hispanic men are almost four times as likely to go to prison at some point in their lives as white males, although less likely than African American males.
There were an estimated 30,000 street gangs and more than 800,000 gang members active across the U.S. in 2007, up from 731,500 in 2002. New immigrants are susceptible to gang influences and activities because of language barriers, employment difficulties, support, protection, and fear

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