Unusual Immigration And Future Immigration Reform

It has been an unusual migration of people in the last fifty years in the history of the United States transforming the political and social landscape of this immigrant nation. The transformation created unusual circumstances and pressure for people who came here and for people who were already here. US Government is working on immigration reform where the key requirements are knowledge of English, civics, and history of the United States for prospective immigrants and assimilation is clearly an underlying issue of the debate.

In the last fifty years, 59 million people have migrated from various countries to the United States. Half of the immigrants who arrived in America after the passage of landmark immigration legislation in 1965 are Latinos and about a quarter are from Asia. In 1965, 84% of Americans were non-Hispanic whites, 4% were Hispanic, and less than 1% were Asian. In 2015, the numbers were astonishingly different: 62% of Americans are white, 18% of Americans are Hispanic, and Asians count as 6% of the populace.

With expanding globalization and aging populations, there will be increased efforts to attract more foreign workers, filtered based on skill. This will further change the demography. Today the predictions are that in less than 40 years from now there will be no ethnic majority in the U.S., and by 2065, Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group.

The increase changed the political and social landscape of the U.S. with significant populations of immigrant communities, which also created hundreds of new enclaves – geographical areas -primarily populated by a population with similar ethnic or racial backgrounds. This is not a new phenomenon, as immigrants have always created enclaves of either residential areas or workplaces with a high concentration of ethnic firms, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity.

The corporations demand the quality of workers which they maintain are integral to the nation’s economic growth, while prior immigrants support limiting immigration. It is widely believed that Immigrants steal jobs from American workers. Many American workers, struggling to recover from the Great Recession, consider themselves marginalized, squeezed out by immigrants. However, US Govt. and capitalists know that immigration is ‘integral to the nation’s economic growth because immigrants bring new ideas and add to an American labor force that would be shrinking without them, helping ensure continued growth into the future. They also realize that it should not be done at the cost of available American workers.

American immigration has been on a roller coaster since its founding – immigration has divided and polarized the country both politically and socially. I believe most Americans believe immigration has made American society better, while many feel immigration has made American society worse. Settlement in the USA was beneficial for some and not for others, because of the divisions of racial groups; it has made it hard for some groups to live in peace and harmony.

The Changing American Demography

First and foremost, America needs to understand and appreciate the contributions that immigrants of all skill levels have made to this country during the past 50 years of their country. Immigrants constitute a historically high percentage of the U.S. population at present; consequently, “domestic tranquility” requires that natives and newcomers learn to co-exist.