Immigration in United States

Immigration in United States

Northern America

These, brought in from Africa for the first time in 1619, subsequently increased significantly, both for the further massive inflows into the country and for their high birth rate (in 1790 they represented as much as 20% of the total US population., later they settled at 10-12%): they constitute the main heterogeneous element within the population of the USA and the unresolved problem of their effective integration into the life of the country continues to be of capital importance for United States. United States is a country located in North America according to BUSINESSCARRIERS.COM.

As for the Amerindians, who in number of approx. 1 million lived in the country when the Europeans arrived, they were gradually exterminated both for the merciless massacres and for alcoholism and diseases contracted by whites, so much so that they were reduced to approx. 250. 000 at the end of the nineteenth century; subsequently, however, the improved hygienic conditions and peace (paid for, however, with the creation of reserves, generally in the most disadvantaged areas of the Center-West and the West, such as Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico) led to an increase in the Indian membership. The country’s enlargement process was stimulated, one might say made necessary, by the great immigration waves, driven there by the economic and social dynamism that ran through and through the USA: from 1820 to 1991 over 58 million immigrants reached the country permanently, including which approx. 7 million Germans, 5 million Italians, 10 million residents of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 million from Canada and over 3 million from Russia. In fact, starting from the mid-19th century, immigration from other European countries was added to essentially English and Irish immigration. The first major waves of immigrants of non-British origin were composed especially of Germans and Scandinavians, attracted mainly by the northernmost forest regions. The population rapidly increased. In 1790 there were 3.9 million residents in the whole territory; in 1850 there were already 23.2 million. And just starting from 1850 the immigration rate reached gradually increasing values. From 1850 to 1860 the immigrants were 2.6 million; between 1860 and 1880 ca. 5.2 million; between 1880 and 1900 as many as 9 million. Near the end of the century. XIX began the influx of Slavic groups and especially of the Italians. The pace underwent a new acceleration. Between 1900 and 1910, 8.8 million immigrants reached the USA and over 5 million in the four years between 1910 and 1914 alone. Then with the war in Europe there was a very strong decline, although the influx was always consistent; until, with the laws of 1921, 1924 and 1928, the immigration began to be controlled with the rule of rates, established on the basis of the nationalities already present in the country; this favored the British immigrants, who then formed the majority of the population, while immigration was practically closed to Asians, especially the Chinese, who were beginning to settle in the West in considerable numbers. The various nationalities preferably settled in areas that offered job opportunities more similar to those of the motherland.

The great mass of immigrants, lacking in preparation, without qualifications, like many Italians, ended up in the ghettos of the great Atlantic cities, which were the receptacle of all those who arrived in the new lands for good fortune; as a result of this there was the strong growth of urbanism in this part of the USA, already industrially organized and for this very reason able to host ever new human masses. The era of the Anglo-Saxon colonists was thus definitively over and they conquered their place with difficulty, almost always well rewarded, in this favored by Homestead Act, under which everyone became the owner of the tilled and cultivated land. The immigrants who massed in the big cities, that is, in an extremely different social and human context, were by now of a new mold and were perhaps looking for easier fortunes. Therefore, tensions between nationalities were determined or intensified which were the reflection of different mentalities and which had the consequence of aggregating the various communities, especially in large urban centers, where distinct neighborhoods were created, inhabited by homogeneous groups, more or less integrated into the social life and in the country’s global economy. Some Northern States (Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts etc.) have been relatively immune from the ethnic mix typical of the metropolises of the central Atlantic region (New York, Pennsylvania, etc.), which are the real background of that melting pot, that “melting pot” so characteristic of the American human fabric. Even the South (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) has retained a certain ethnic purity, with the families of the old colonial aristocracy and the masses of blacks who, however, little by little, also to escape misery and politics segregationist, abandoned the impoverished countryside in large numbers, looking for their place in the big cities of the Center-East, capable of absorbing a bit of everyone, albeit at the cost of those social discriminations that are at the origin of the great urban ghettos of the major centers. The West, from Texas to California, is also multi-ethnic: the appeals of this region have been very varied, with the exception of some areas, such as the California Valley, which with its Mediterranean climate was a suitable place for the Italian colonists specialized in viticulture and horticulture.

The Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Oregon etc.) attracted mainly Slavs, Scandinavians and Germans. Subsequently the importance of these references, given the great social mobility of the USA, has been reduced and the specific ethnic areas have followed the tendency to disappear to reform in the cities, however very degraded where the ethnic groups represent the lower and marginalized social classes. After all, immigration has, since the middle of the twentieth century, been relatively reduced, even if the second half of the last century, especially immediately after the Second World War, has brought a considerable flow (between 1950 and 1970 ca. million), mostly from Europe and Canada, a country that served as a base for European emigrants to reach the United States later. In the early years of the century. XXI the migratory balance was positive thanks to the influx of Hispanics and Asians. In particular, legal immigration, which in 2017 counted 1,127,167 units, comes for almost equal parts from Latin America (mainly Mexico and Caribbean) and from Asia while the clandestine one almost exclusively from Latin America and primarily concerns the southern states of the country (California, Texas, New Mexico, etc.). The United States is also a major destination for refugees and asylum seekers; they are also the most important of the UNHCR donor countries. The country received, in the period between 1996 and 2005, a figure that is around 500,000-1,000,000 individuals among refugees, who came from Bosnia Herzegovina – especially in the period 1998-2002 -, Somalia, Liberia, China, Ukraine (since 1999), and asylum seekers, mostly from Mexico, Haiti, Colombia and China.

Immigration in United States