Youth Perspectives

Here's where US immigrants have come from for the last 200 years

An Albanian holds up a U.S. flag as President George W. Bush's motorcade passes through central Tirana central Tirana June 10, 2007. Bush said on Sunday the United Nations should grant independence quickly to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, and if Russia continued to block it the West would act.REUTERS/Damir Sagolj    (ALBANIA) - RTR1QNTJ

These infographics and charts show how much the United Sates owes its identity and heritage to immigration. Image: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Skye Gould
Senior Graphic Designer, Business Insider
Rebecca Harrington
Reporter, Tech Insider
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Migration is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Migration

President Donald Trump's recent executive orders on immigration may have reignited public debate, but Americans have long harbored anti-immigrant sentiments.

One-third of Americans said in a 2016 Pew Research Center survey that immigrants are a "burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care," and 38% say immigration should be decreased.

On the flip side, 59% of Americans say immigrants "strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents" and either think immigration should stay at its present level or increase.

As of February 21st 2017, immigrants make up 13.5% of the US population — on par with the share in 1860, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The overall number of immigrants coming to the US peaked from 2000-05 at 5 million, and has been declining since then.

Here are the major regions where immigrants entering the US have come from since 1820:

 Image 1
Image: Business Insider

US immigrants were largely of European descent in the 1800s, and started coming from the Americas (largely Mexico) in the 1960s.

The sharp decrease in the 1920s is due to Congress passing the Exclusion Act, which set limits on the number of immigrants who could enter the US, based on a quota system of the percentage of nationalities already in the country. Barely anyone from Asia could enter at all.

Congress revised the law in 1952, and immigration started to tick up again. Pew Research Center made this neat GIF showing the major country where immigrants have come from by state from 1850-2013:

 Image 2
Image: Pew Research Center
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

5 charts that show the state of global youth employment in 2024

Madeleine North

August 29, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum