The Change of Immigration

Learning about the changing faces of immigration can help us manage how our country is changing and establish ways to improve for the benefit of all. Here are interesting facts on the new profiles of immigrants.

Fact 1: The growth of our population is slowing  

More than 44.9 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2019, making up 13.7 percent of the population per the 2020 Census. This is short of the record high of 14.8 percent USA had in 1890. In terms of births, the foreign-born population grew less than 0.5 percent between 2018 and 2019. The low figures mirror the slowing growth of the overall U.S. population since 2015. 

Fact 2: Immigrant origins changed  

The large numbers of immigrants from Latin America and Asia in recent decades represent a sharp turnaround from the mid-1900s, when immigration largely came from Europe. In the 1960s no single country accounted for more than 15 percent of the U.S. immigrant population, but Italians were the top origin group, making up 13 percent of the foreign born in 1960, followed by Germans and Canadians. 

Among the groups with at least 100,000 immigrants in the United States in 2019, the Venezuelan immigrant population increased the most between 2010 and 2019 (by 153 percent), followed by individuals from Afghanistan (143 percent), Nepal (140 percent), Myanmar (also known as Burma; 84 percent), and Nigeria (79 percent). 

Fifty-one percent of all immigrants in the United States in 2019 arrived prior to 2000, while 25 percent entered between 2000 and 2009. The remaining 25 percent have come since 2010. 

Fact 3: More immigrants are educated  

Among those who reported speaking a language other than English at home, 62 percent spoke Spanish. Other top languages were Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese, 5 percent); Tagalog (almost 3 percent); and Vietnamese, Arabic, French (including Cajun), and Korean. 

In 2019, 33 percent (12.9 million) of the 39.5 million immigrants ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher, similar to U.S.-born adults. However, newer arrivals tend to be better educated; 48 percent of immigrants who entered the country between 2014 and 2019 held at least a bachelor’s degree. 

Fact 4: Immigrants are integral to the US workforce  

Immigrants constituted 17 percent (28.6 million people) of the civilian labor force (166.3 million) in 2019, which comprises both employed and unemployed people. Immigrant participation in the labor force has more than tripled since 1970, when immigrants accounted for approximately 5 percent of the civilian labor force. 

Fact 5: Eligible immigrants still face barriers for citizenship 

USCIS is taking longer to process naturalization applications, with average processing times increasing from 5.6 months in FY 2016 to 9.1 months in FY 2020 to 11.7 months as of the end of January 2022. Naturalizations reached an all-time high in FY 2008, increasing 59 percent from 660,000 the prior year to 1,047,000. This came as a result of impending application fee increases and the promotion of U.S. citizenship in advance of the 2008 presidential election. 

The more we understand the new demographics of immigration, the better prepared we are to collaborate with a new generation of future citizens who continue to build up this nation, as millions of immigrants have done in the past. This is why OPA is determined to support immigrants on their path to citizenship, with a manageable economic alternative to pay for USCIS fees.