Introduction

This paper describes recent immigration trends in the United States that have been dominated by Hispanics and Asians. This paper also considers why Hispanic immigrants are sometimes viewed negatively—as an employment threat to existing workers and by some as being responsible for increased social costs, including expenditures for school and health care (Rueben and Gault, Urban Institute, 2017).

In contrast to the negative view of immigrants, this paper cites a Pew Research Center report (2020) that finds that Hispanic immigrants have made significant contributions to the economic development, cultural awareness, education level, and business development of the communities where they live. Their contributions to the agricultural sector are well documented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA – NASS 2021).

Background

Many waves of immigrants have arrived in the United States since the early 17th century. Initially most of them were Europeans, but since the end of World War II Hispanic and Asian immigrants began arriving in large numbers to make Hispanics a large minority racial/ethnic group currently in the country (Wikipedia). Recent forecasts by the Pew Research Center based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau predict that Asians will surpass Hispanics by 2055 as the largest minority group.

What follows is a careful review of the several immigration waves from different parts of the world to the United States since the early 1960s. We put special emphasis on Hispanic immigration and the social and economic contributions of these immigrants to the country. The recent influx of Hispanic immigrants has created many negative attitudes against them. The empirical analysis is based on secondary data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Migration Policy Institute, which show that recent waves of immigrants resulted in an increase in the Hispanic and Asian populations, which became the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. We conclude by showing that the increase in the Hispanic and Asian population and the decline of the white population are changing the demographic configuration of American society.

The article “Trends in Immigration to the U.S.” from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) maintains that immigration is widely considered to be in the national interest, since it permits individuals to better themselves as it strengthens the United States. In addition, the article presents U.S. government policies that facilitate the arrival of some immigrants and restrict certain types of immigrants. The country facilitated immigration for the first 100 years, welcoming foreigners to settle a vast territory. Starting in the 1880s, an era of qualitative immigration restrictions began as certain immigrants were barred, including prostitutes, workers with contracts that tied them to a particular employer for several years, and Chinese people. In the 1920s, quantitative restrictions or quotas set a ceiling on the number of immigrants accepted each year.

Immigration law changed in 1965 when qualitative and quantitative restrictions were maintained, but national origin preferences that favored the entry of Europeans were dropped. U.S. immigration policy began to favor the entry of foreigners who had U.S. relatives and foreigners requested by U.S. employers. During the 1970s, the origins of most immigrants changed from Europe to Latin America and Asia: Between 2000 and 2009, over three-fourths of the 10 million immigrants admitted were from Latin America and Asia (Wikipedia).

The American Immigration Council (IMC) states, “The nation has long been the beneficiary of the new energy and ingenuity that immigrants bring.” It continues by stating that 14 percent of U.S. residents are foreign-born, over half of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens. One in seven U.S. residents is an immigrant, while one in eight residents is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent. The report also states that one in six U.S. workers is an immigrant, making up a vital part of the country’s labor force in a range of industries.

The Immigrant Learning Center (ILC) presents statistics about immigrants in the U.S. In 2018, there were 44 million immigrants in the United States, 86.5% of whom were U.S.-born and 13.5 percent of whom were foreign-born, according to the ILC (2020). The five largest immigrant populations are from Mexico (24.8%), India (5.9%), China (4.9%), the Philippines (4.5%), and El Salvador (3.1%). Of those, 77 percent were documented immigrants and 23 percent were undocumented. More than half (50.9%) have become U.S. citizens.

Abby Budiman from the Pew Research Center (2020) states: “The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants. According to the report, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.8 million in 2018. Since 1965, when U.S. immigration laws replaced a national quota system, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. has more than quadrupled. Today immigrants account for 13.7% of the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.8%) in 1970. However, today’s immigrant share remains below the record 14.8 percent in 1890, when 9.2 million immigrants lived in the United States.

According to Anthony Knapp and Tiangeng Lu (2022), “The U.S. Census Bureau projects that net international migration to the United States will fully rebound in 2022 from its COVID-19 slump when it experienced some of its lowest levels in decades.”. Based on U.S. Census data, the authors estimated that net international migration added more than a million people to the U.S. population between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022, “an indication that net migration flows to the United States are on track to return to pre-pandemic levels.”

Joel Rose, an NPR national correspondent (2023), indicated, “The immigrant population in the U.S is growing again, reaching a record high of just over 46 million. The data shows big gains in the number of Latin America and Asia, and a substantial number of new arrivals had college or post-college degrees. ”

Gamboa and Acevedo (2021) report that during the past decade, Latinos accounted for more than half of the nation’s population growth, which is reflected not only in the big cities, but also in small mountain towns, Southern neighborhoods, and the Midwest’s grasslands. Latino immigrants are always looking for economic opportunities across the country.

The Pew Research Center (2023) states that the vast majority of the 60 million Hispanics who live in the United States work in education, health, and social services. Their salaries on average are low, since many of them do not have a high school degree, but the new waves of immigrants and the increase of Latinos born in the U.S. improve their employment situation.

Conflicting Attitudes Toward Hispanic Migrants

The report from the American Immigration Council (AIC) concludes that “Immigrants contribute billions of dollars in taxes to the U.S. economy.” It states that in 2019, immigrant-led households across the U.S. contributed $330.7 billion in federal taxes and 161.7 billion in state and local taxes. In addition, households headed by undocumented immigrants paid an estimated $18.9 billion in federal taxes and $11.7 billion in state and local taxes, according to the report.

Another contribution of immigrants to the U.S. economy is their spending power, which reached $1.3 trillion in after-tax income. They also generate tens of billions of dollars in business revenue. According to the AIC, 3.2 million immigrant business owners accounted for 22 percent of all self-employed U.S. residents in 2019 and generated $86.3 billion in business income.

Rogelio Saenz expressed the view that the Hispanic population needs to be seen as a valuable resource for the country. The bilingual skills of Hispanics also make them a valuable resource for the U.S. business community. As of 2022, around 42.5 million individuals in the U.S. speak Spanish as their first language, accounting for 13.4% of the total population. Additionally, there are 12.2 million bilingual Spanish speakers living in the U.S. Several businesses, especially banks and insurance companies, have hired bilingual staff to serve the increasing number of people who conduct their business in Spanish.

Some researchers consider immigrants as new business and jobs creators, which promotes the economic growth of the country (Peter Dizikes, 2022) and (Cimini Kate, 2020). When immigrants have different skills than U.S.-born workers, they can complement the work of these workers, resulting in higher productivity and economic growth of the country.

In contrast to the favorable views of Hispanic immigrants, consider the alternative views.

There are several articles describing the different waves of immigrants arriving in the U.S. since the early 1600s and the benefits and problems these immigrants bring to the country. Alex Nowrasteh from the Cato Institute reports 15 common myths against immigration and explains why they are wrong. Some of these myths include: “Immigrants will take American jobs, lower wages, and especially hurt the poor.” “It is easy to immigrate here legally. Why don’t illegal immigrants just get in line?” “Immigrants abuse the welfare state.” “Immigrants increase economic inequality.” “Immigrants are a major source of crime.” The author explains carefully and extensively why all these myths are false.

A study by the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC, 2012) identifies negative stereotypes about the Hispanic population and immigrants living in the country. The study reached three important conclusions: 1) Mass media and entertainment have a strong influence on non-Hispanics’ perception of the Hispanic population. 2) Non-Hispanics also have in mind a combination of positive and negative aspects about Hispanics and immigrants but base their views more on stereotypes. In addition, 3) Hispanic characterizations on TV could diminish or exacerbate the image they have about this population.

FitzGerald et.al (2019) found that Mexicans in the U.S. face legal abuses, racial discrimination, attacks from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE), and other violations of their civil rights. According to the U.S. Constitution, all persons living in the country have the same protection of law, regardless of their nationality or legal status. But as recent stories about the negligent treatment of migrant children in government detention centers highlight, these civil rights are not always granted to immigrants.

An article by Rev. David Maldonado, “Racismo y Latinos: el muro de la separación y el miedo (2020),” observes that the border wall represents more than a national border. The wall reflects and symbolizes the fear that many white Americans have toward Hispanic immigrants, and by extension toward other Latinos who are living in the United States.

Jessica Weiss wrote a 2017 article for UNIVISION (Hispanic TV network) reporting that this news organization has received more than 200 reports of hate and prejudice against viewers and readers, who have been victims of racial insults and harassment, intimidation, vandalism, and even aggression. The author writes that in the past few months, “Hate incidents and hate crimes have targeted Latinos around the country, in small towns and big cities, coast-to-coast.”

This paper tries to demonstrate that the steady increase in the number of Hispanics currently living in the country and the decline of the white population is creating a noticeable gap between these two racial/ethnic populations. This gap has become the reason why Hispanics, and especially new Hispanic immigrants, are becoming the target of negative connotations that are the basis for the development of an anti-immigrant sentiment among racial/ethnic majority groups.

Empirical Analysis

The United States is a country of immigrants. The first of the 13 colonies were established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. In 1624, Virginia became a royal colony. Later, there was an influx of European immigrants from Germany, Italy, Ireland, AustriaHungary, the Russian empire, and Scandinavia (Wikipedia).

According to the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 79.5 million immigrants became permanent residents of the United States from 1820 to 2013. Figure 1 shows the number of immigrants to the United States by continent of origin and by decade starting in 1820. European immigrants had the largest numbers up to the end of the 19th century, reaching close to 8 million. Since the early 1900s, the total number of immigrants started to decline, reaching close to 1 million in 1930. A new wave of immigrants started to arrive in the country from 1940 to 2000, with the largest numbers of immigrants coming from the Americas and Asia. After reaching this top volume, the number of total legal immigrants declined by more than 50 percent to less than 4 million in 2010.

Figure 1. Volume of U.S. Immigration and Continent of Origin by Decade, 1820-2013

 

From 1820 to 1957, Germany and Italy were the top countries sending immigrants to the United States; over 14 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1905. In the 1870s and early 1880s, the majority of European immigrants came from Ireland, Great Britain, and Germany. By 1890, New York City alone had a German population equal to Hamburg, Germany. The demographics of immigration experienced a dramatic shift. By 1900, most who arrived in the United States emigrated from southern and eastern Europe. At that time, immigrants from Italy, Russia, and Jewish ethnic were coming in large numbers. The majority of immigrants who came to the U.S. between 1900 and 1929 came from countries in southeastern Europe such as Italy and Greece. People from Russia, Mexico, China, and Japan also immigrated.

The U.S government issued legislation to regulate the number and origin of immigrants. The National Origins Formula of 1921 and its final form in 1924 not only restricted the number of immigrants who might enter the United States but also assigned slots according to quotas based on national origin. A complicated piece of legislation, it essentially gave preference to immigrants from Central, Northern, and Western Europe; limited the numbers from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe; and gave zero quotas to Asia (Wikipedia).

The Equal Nationality Act of 1934 allowed foreign-born children of American mothers and alien fathers who had entered the U.S. before the age of 18 and had lived in the country for five years to apply for U.S. citizenship for the first time. It also made the naturalization process quicker for the alien husbands of American wives. Until 1965, national origin quotas strictly limited immigration from the Philippines. In 1965, after revision of the immigration law, significant Filipino immigration began, totaling 1,728,000 by 2004.

At the end of World War II, “regular” immigration almost immediately increased under the official national origins quota system, as refugees from war-torn Europe began immigrating to the U.S. From 1941 to 1950, 1,035,000 people emigrated to the U.S., including 226,000 from Germany, 139,000 from the United Kingdom, 171,000 from Canada, 60,000 from Mexico, and 57,000 from Italy. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 finally allowed the displaced people of World War II to start immigrating. Some 200,000 Europeans and 17,000 orphans displaced by WWII were initially allowed to immigrate to the United States outside the immigration quotas. President Harry S. Truman signed the first Displaced Persons (DP) Act on June 25, 1948, allowing entry for 200,000 DPs, and he followed with the more accommodating second DP Act on June 16, 1950, which allowed entry for another 200,000. This quota, including acceptance of 55,000 Volksdeutsche, required sponsorship for all immigrants. Along with an additional quota of 200,000 granted in 1953 and others in succeeding years, a total of nearly 600,000 refugees were allowed into the country outside the quota system, second only to Israel's 650,000 (Wikipedia).

Because of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution crushed by the Soviets, 245,000 Hungarian families were admitted by 1960. From 1950 to 1960, the U.S. had 2,515,000 new immigrants, with 477,000 arriving from Germany, 185,000 from Italy, 52,000 from the Netherlands, 203,000 from the United Kingdom, 46,000 from Japan, 300,000 from Mexico, and 377,000 from Canada (Wikipedia).

The 1959 Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro, drove the upper and the middle classes to exile, and 409,000 families had immigrated to the U.S. by 1970. That was facilitated by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which gave permanent resident status to Cubans who were physically present in the United States for one year if they entered after January 1, 1959 (Wikipedia).

This all changed with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, a by-product of the civil rights movement. The measure did not intend to stimulate immigration from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, or elsewhere in the developing world. Rather, by doing away with the race-based quota system, it expected that immigrants would come from “traditional” societies such as Italy, Greece, and Portugal, which were subject to very small quotas in the 1924 Act. The 1965 Act replaced the quotas with preferential categories based on family relationships and job skills by giving particular preference to potential immigrants with relatives in the country and with occupations deemed critical by the U.S. Department of Labor. After 1970, after an initial influx from European countries, immigrants from places like Korea, China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Africa became more common (Wikipedia).

Although Hispanic and Asian immigrants had been coming to the U.S. since the 19th century, their numbers considerably increased in the past 30 years, making them the largest racial/ethnic group as a percentage of all immigrants. According to a 2000 report from the Pew Research Center, 47.6 percent of immigrants were Hispanic, while 22.5 percent came from Asian countries. In 2008, the percentage of both groups of immigrants was the same at 33.0 percent. From 2008 to 2016, the percentage of Asian immigrants was larger than the corresponding to Hispanic immigrants, representing an important shift in immigration trends. By 2016 the two immigrant groups again reached the same percentage of total immigrants at 22.5 percent. From 2016 to the present, Asians again become the largest group of immigrants to the United States.

Some reasons for European immigration included crop failures, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine. In contrast, for many the United States was viewed as a land of opportunity. Others were seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution.

Due to the hard economic times in the 1970s, European immigrants began to compete for the jobs traditionally reserved for the Chinese. This economic competition created dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred that resulted in anti-Chinese riots and pressure, especially in California, for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States.

Although immigrants often settled near ports of entry, a large number found their way inland. Many states, especially those with sparse populations, actively sought to attract immigrants by offering jobs or land for farming. Many immigrants wanted to move to communities established by previous settlers from their homelands (MPI, 2018).

Once they settled, immigrants were looking for work. However, there were not enough jobs, and employers often took advantage of them. Men were generally paid less than other workers, and women less than men. Social tensions were also part of the immigrant experience. They were often stereotyped and discriminated against; many immigrants suffered verbal and physical abuse because they were “different.” While large-scale immigration created many social tensions, it also produced a new vitality in the cities and states in which the immigrants settled. New immigrants helped to transform American society and culture, demonstrating that diversity and unity are the basis of national strength (MPI, 2018).

The Growth of the Hispanic Population

While the number of European immigrants was continually decreasing, the Hispanic population in the United States experienced a noticeable increase starting in 1950 when the Bracero Program was established. Under this program, a large number of Hispanics, especially those from Puerto Rico and Mexico, arrived in the country to work in the agricultural sector. Table 1 presents the total Hispanic population living in the country at the end of each decade and is based on the official results of the U.S decennial census. Table 1 shows the total Hispanic population living in the U.S in each decade and the percentage increase from the previous decade. We can observe that in 1950, there were 2.3 million Hispanics; this population increased to 5.5 million in 1960, an increase of 139 percent. The Hispanic population continued to grow until 2020, when 62.1 million Hispanics were living in the United States, a net increase of 2,600 percent during a period of 70 years. If this trend continues, according to new U.S. Census Bureau population projections, the Hispanic population is expected to reach 106 million in 2050, which would account for 29 percent of the U.S. population in 2050.

The fast growth of the Hispanic population in the United States could be explained in part by the continued flow of immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Central and South American countries who have been arriving in the country in the last decades. Another reason is the high fertility rate of Hispanics compared to other racial/ethnic groups. In addition, the Hispanic population is much younger than the white population.

Table 1. Hispanic Population Growth from 1950 to 2020

Year	Total Hispanic Population	Percentage Increase Per Decade
1950	2.3 M	--
1960	5.5 M	139.1%
1970	9.1 M	65.5%
1980	14.6 M	60.4%
1990	22.4 M	53.4%
2000	35.3 M	57.6%
2010	50.5 M	43.1%
2020	62.1 M	23.0%

Table 2 shows the number of Hispanic legal immigrants coming to the United States in the eight decades since the 1940s and the percentage increase from the previous decade. The numbers presented are based on the U.S. decennial census. During the 1940s only 153,810 new Hispanic immigrants arrived in the U.S.; this number increased in the next decades, reaching a high of close to 4.3 million in the 1990s. From the 1940s to 1990s, the total number of Hispanic legal immigrants grew to 11,560,920, with an average increase of close to 2 million immigrants per decade. In the past two decades, 8,348,896 immigrants arrived, doubling the previous average with 4.1 million immigrants per decade.

Table 2. Total Hispanic Immigrants Change by Decade in the United States

Year	Legal Hispanic Immigrants	Percentage Increase
1941-1950	153,810	--
1951-1960	559,281	263.6%
1961-1970	1,283,420	129.5%
1971-1980	1,811,801	41.2%
1981-1990	3,457,829	90.8%
1991-2000	4,294,779	24.2%
2001-2010	4,242,195	-1.2%
2011-2020	4,106,701	-3.2%

There is no official and reliable information about the number of Hispanic illegal immigrants; some estimate that around 12 million are currently living in the country, which brings the total number of Hispanic immigrants to over 30 million. Illegal Hispanic immigrants are coming to the country crossing the southern border in relatively large numbers and creating serious problems to the border states and communities.

Among the reasons why there is a current large influx of illegal Hispanic immigrants to the country, we can cite the climate change crisis that is creating floods, droughts, and pest inflections, which makes agricultural production extremely difficult and makes it difficult for farmers to produce food for their families. According to World Vision (2022), “Poverty, violence, and food insecurity are among the top reasons families migrate north.”

Asian Population Growth

In this section, we present data about the rate of growth of the Asian population in the U.S. Asians are the fastest-growing racial/ ethnic group. In addition, large numbers of Asians are coming to America, surpassing the number of Hispanic immigrants.

The Asian population in the United States has steadily grown in the past 8 decades from 0.3 million in 1950 to 24 million in 2020, which represents an increase of 7,900 percent. From 2010 to 2020, the growth of the Asian population was 1.7 times higher than the growth of the Hispanic population. According to some forecasts from the U.S. Census Bureau, it is expected that by 2050 Asians will become the largest racial group in the country.

Table 3. Asian Population Growth from 1950 to 2020

Year	Total Asian Population	Percentage Increase Per Decade
1950	0.3 M	--
1960	1.0 M	205.4%
1970	1.5 M	57.0%
1980	3.5 M	127.5%
1990	6.9 M	97.4%
2000	11.9 M	72.2%
2010	17.3 M	45.6%
2020	24.0 M	38.6%

On the other hand, as shown in Table 4, the number of Asian immigrants has been increasing considerably in the past decades. In 1960, only 491,000 Asian immigrants arrived in the country. Their number steadily increased during the next decades, reaching 14,099,000 in 2019, resulting in close to a 2,800 percent increase over 7 decades. In the past decade, over 14 million Asians arrived in the country compared to only 4.1 million legal Hispanic immigrants, resulting in 3.4 times more Asian immigrants.

The main characteristic that differentiates Asian immigrants from other groups is that most of them come with higher educational attainment skills, which enables them to work in top positions or to create their own jobs.

Table 4. Total Asian Immigrants Change by Decade in the United States

Year	Legal Asian Immigrants	Percentage Increase
1960	491,000	--
1970	825,000	68.0%
1980	2,540,000	207.9%
1990	4,979,000	96.0%
2000	8,226,000	65.2%
2010	11,284,000	37.2%
2019	14,099,000	24.9%

Table 5 shows the total number of “Other” immigrants, which include mainly Europeans, but also immigrants from Africa, Oceania, and other world regions and countries. As shown in Table 5, these numbers are lower compared to those presented for Hispanic and Asians. These numbers support our previous statements about the changing waves of immigrants to the U.S. from mainly Europeans, who were the first immigrants, to Hispanics and Asians, who constitute the new waves of racial/ ethnic immigrants.

We can observe that these “Other” immigrants experienced a considerable increase from 1950 to 1960, with more than 900,000 new immigrants. The European refugees who left their countries due to the prevailing bad economic conditions in Europe after WWII could explain this increase. After the major influx during the 1950s, the number of these immigrants declined during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1990 and 2010, their numbers gradually increased, decreasing after that.

Table 5. Total "Other" Immigrants in the United States

Year	Legal Other Immigrants during the decade	Percentage Increase
1950	814,925	--
1960	1,743,238	113.9%
1970	1,590,971	-8.7%
1980	1,092,340	-31.3%
1990	1,141,618	4.5%
2000	2,004,926	75.6%
2010	2,637,921	31.6%
2020	2,278,208	-13.6%

The total number of immigrants included in Table 6 shows a steady growth from 1960 to 2020. During the past 7 decades, the total number of immigrants grew by 17.7 million, which represents a 6,467.7 percent growth of the immigrant population, although the percentage increase in the past 4 decades presents a declining trend. 

Table 6. Total Immigrants in the United States, 1960-2020

Year	Total Asian Population	Percentage Increase Per Decade
1960	2,793,519	--
1970	3,699,391	32.4%
1980	5,444,141	47.2%
1990	9,578,447	75.9%
2000	14,525,705	51.6%
2010	18,164,116	25.0%
2020	20,483,909	12.8%

Figure 2 shows immigration patterns to the United States from 1820 to 2021 for Asians, Hispanics, and Other (mainly from Europe) immigrants. This figure clearly displays how the different waves of immigrants have been changing through this period. During the initial years, “Others,” mainly Europeans, were coming in large numbers to the country up to the early 1900s. From the early 20th century until 1930, the number of immigrants declined due to restrictions imposed by the U.S. government. From 1930 to the present, Asian and Hispanic immigrants have been coming to the U.S. in large numbers.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Hispanic immigrants outnumbered Asian immigrants, but starting in 1970 to the present, Asians outnumbered other immigrants. As stated above, due to the large influx of Asian immigrants and the natural in-country growth, Asians will become the largest racial group in the United States by 2050.

Figure 2. Immigration Waves of Asian, Hispanic, and Other Immigrants 

 

We created Figure 3 based on data used to construct Figure 2 to facilitate the analysis of the immigration trends presented in Figure 2. Figure 3 shows timelines for the numbers of Hispanic, Asian, and Other immigrants who came to the United States from 1994 to 2022, using a different scale than the one in Figure 2 to clearly display how the numbers corresponding to the different groups of immigrants were performing in the past 3 decades.

Each of these groups of immigrants has different characteristics. Asian immigrants come to the country with high levels of education. Most of them are entrepreneurs who establish new businesses and create jobs, and most of them speak and read English. According to the Population Reference Bureau (2010), “Foreign-born Latinos lag behind their respective native-born counterparts in high school graduation rates, occupational socioeconomic index, median family income, and possession of health insurance.” On the other hand, “Hispanic immigrants are significantly more likely to be entrepreneurs than the general U.S. population. More than 12 percent of all Hispanic immigrant workers worked for their own business, making them 30.6 percent more likely to have their own business than the overall U.S. population. There were more than 2.5 million Hispanic entrepreneurs in the United States in 2019” (New American Economy Research Fund, 2021).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Asians have the highest educational level among all racial and ethnic groups, allowing them to obtain good-paying jobs and create large numbers of businesses and job opportunities, which results in one of the highest household median incomes in the nation. Hispanics, both males and females, have the highest labor participation rates, show very high work ethics, are very hard workers, and are willing to work on any type of jobs.

Asian and Hispanic immigrants have different reasons for their immigration to the United States. Asian immigration could be characterized as a “pull migration” due to their high levels of education and technical skills. On the other hand, Hispanic immigrants come to the country looking for better opportunities for their families, under a “push” migration due to the prevailing social and economic conditions in their countries.

A point in the graph represents the increase in the number of immigrants during the decade. It shows a notable increase in the number of Asians, while the number of Hispanic immigrants remains stable.

Figure 3. Number of Immigrants to the United States by Decade: 1940-2020

 

Figure 4. Population Percentages for White, Hispanic, and Asian Populations in the United States: 2010 - 2021

 

Figure 4 displays how the percentage of the total population has been changing, increasing, or declining, for each of the three largest racial groups in the United States, during a period of 11 years from 2010 to 2021 as a percentage of the total U.S. population. The percentage of white population clearly shows a downward slope, starting in 2010 with 78 percent of the total population and reaching 60 percent in 2021, which amounts to an 18 percent decrease. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of white population in the U.S. that identifies with a single race is expected to fall below 50% by 2045. One of the main reasons for the decline in the white population is that families are having fewer children.

On the other hand, both Hispanic and Asian populations present a sustainable increase in the percentages of their populations. In 2020, the percentage of Hispanic population in the U.S. was 16 percent and it increased to 19 percent in 2021. The Hispanic population will continue increasing during the next decade and is expected to reach 21.1 percent by 2030.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5.6 percent of all people in the United States identified as Asian in 2010. This racial group is one of the fastest growing, reaching 7% of the total U.S. population in 2021. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of the 2021 American Community Survey, 17.8 million Asian adults live in the United States. This population has roughly doubled since 2000, when 8.7 million Asian adults lived in the country.

A report by William Frey from the Brookings Institution (2018) states that the nation will become “minority white” in 2045, when whites will represent 49.7 percent of the population. The percentage of Hispanics is forecast to reach 24.6, followed by Blacks (13.1 percent), Asians (7.9%), and multiracial (3.8%). Single-race, non-Hispanic Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the country, surpassing Hispanics in 2055. By then, Asians are expected to make up 36% of all U.S. immigrants, while Hispanics will make up 34%, according to population projections from the Pew Research Center.

Figure 5 shows percentage change in the total population and for the three considered groups. To construct this figure, the corresponding data has been normalized with a starting point of 100% in 2010, making it easier to compare their growth relative to the initial point. We can observe an upward trend for the Hispanic population that is higher than the one for the Asian population. On the other hand, the trend corresponding to the white population is clearly negative from the beginning with a steep decline in the years since 2019.

The gap between the positive trends for the Hispanic and Asian population and the negative trend for the white population has been steadily growing. The decline of the white population described above explains why this gap is increasing. Whites will become the new minority racial group in approximately 20 years and are very concerned about the implications that their new status will have, such as loss of privileges and loss of social, economic, and political power. They also will need to reconfigure their educational and business networks and connections.

The growing gap between the declining white population and the continued growth of the Asian and Hispanic populations could explain why government officials, politicians, and some in the public are concerned. The new demographic configuration could have serious implications in the country and impact each of the racial/ethnic groups, changing their current living conditions and well-being.

Figure 5. Percentage Change in White, Hispanic, and Asian Populations in the United States: 2010 - 2021

 

Conclusion and Implications

This paper displays the different waves of immigrants who arrived in the country since the first Europeans stepped on what is today America. We found that the initial immigration wave composed mainly of white Europeans changed in the last century after Hispanic and later Asian immigrants became the racial and ethnic groups with the largest numbers of immigrants.

The increased numbers of non-white immigrants, and the natural increase in the Asian and Hispanic population already living in the country, are causing a major shift in the demographic configuration of the country, which has started to raise concerns among those who have been part of the largest racial/ethnic group.

Asian immigrants are coming to the country with high levels of education and special skills, which have high demand in the government and private sectors, making them very competitive in the labor market. Contrary to past beliefs, recent data shows that new legal Hispanic immigrants are arriving with higher education levels, have a high labor participation rate and work ethic. They are employed in service and professional occupations, which makes them very competitive in the labor market. The large number of immigrants from these two groups and their educational and labor skills has been generating increased antipathy from the rest of the population.

We consider that the analysis presented in this paper could become the basis for future research for the development of an empirical hypothesis that would explain why these new groups of immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, generate high levels of sentiments of antipathy from current majority groups.

In addition, there is a need to examine the actions that American society needs to implement in order to facilitate the integration of these immigrants into the mainstream of the United States. It is well known how close and small the current Hispanic networks are, and there is a need to expand and connect them to other prevailing networks in order to develop strong relationships that could facilitate their integration into American society and enlarge their contributions to the social and economic development of the country.

In recent years, the growth in the number of Hispanic and Asian immigrants in the United States has led to huge demographic changes in the country, resulting in considerable increases in the population of these two communities with respect to the total U.S. population. While the percentages of these populations keep increasing, the percentage of white population has been steadily declining. By 2045, whites will become a minority group, which will have huge socioeconomic implications in the country.

The social and economic contributions of Hispanic immigrants have become extremely important for the country. They play a key role in the agricultural sector as farmers and working in the agribusiness sector. The work that Hispanic farmworkers perform is extremely important for food production. Hispanic families are working hard revitalizing communities across the country, promoting education and health programs within their communities, and supporting literature and arts programs. U.S.-born Hispanics and especially recent immigrants have become national leaders in business formation and job creation. The importance and variety of the Hispanic community, and especially recent immigrants’ contributions to the United States, make them an important group within the country’s melting pot! 

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