Immigration

Immigration to the United States of America has been an ongoing process since colonizing America. The changing pattern of immigration has varied throughout the last century. These changes were brought on by new immigration laws, political, economical, and demographic pressures. The most profound changes in immigration patterns occurred after the Immigration Law Reform in 1965 resulting in immigration from countries that did not send immigrants before, and a dramatic increase of immigrants from previous sending countries. For example Europe, which accounted for two-thirds of legal immigrants in the 1950s, added only 15 percent in the 1980s.

Modern immigrants groups after 1965 came from Vietnam, the Philippines, South East Asia, Latin America and the latest major influx from Africa. The increase in Asian immigration has been the most dramatic. While the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had ended immigration from China, immigration from Japan and the Philippines to Hawaii and the continental United States continued to the early 1900s. Japanese Immigration had been restricted by the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907, and the immigration Acts of 1924 ended all Asian immigration by establishing a fixed quota in the proportion of the national population in 1880. Before the Immigration and Naturalization Act Amendments of 1965, the Asians made up only 6 percent of immigrants. After 1965 the Asians took advantage of the immigration law. According to statistics from the United States Immigration Services, the percentage of Asian immigrants increased to 45 percent by 1980 and the U. S. census of the year 2000 shows that Asians make up 4.3% of the total U.S. population (about 12 million people). Many of the Asian immigrants came to escape political pressure and to achieve a better economical status. Thousands of Asians started family-owned retail and manufacturing business in the U.S., sending money home to support their family and many enter this country to seek higher education.

Unlike the Asians, the Africans have a totally different history of immigration. Africans were forced immigrants who were brought against their will to North America and enslaved by the colonists. In 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery and permitted African-American men to join the Union Army. The constant growth of the African population resulted mostly out of natural increase of the population until in the 1970s, when refugees from Africa started immigrating. According to the Census results of 2000, 56 percent of all African foreign born arrived in the United States between ...