Key Points/Facts/Quotes from “Our Changing Complexion” in Who We Are Now (2004)

  • 1 in 5 children today has at least one foreign born parent
  • immigration has altered the country’s complexion and digestion
  • 21st Century America to be first country in history made up of every part of world
  • first migrants from Siberia (across Bering Strait)
  • early metaphors for fusion of American immigrants: smelting pot, cauldron, melting pot (from a 1908 play, The Melting Pot)
  • the United States considered world’s first truly multicultural society; only degree of diversity today is new, not existence or consequences
  • US population according to first federal census (1790): 64% white (less than now); 16% Indian, 11% black, 4% Polynesian
  • original 13 states: Indian (native American) population reduced to 1.2% because of disease and colonization; black slaves constituted 19%; well over ½ pop were of English origin; 10% from Germany and Netherlands
  • vast majority of whites traced to northwestern Europe
  • enduring debate over what defines an American: were original European settlers the first Americans or merely immigrants themselves?
  • 1850 census the first to distinguish between residents born in US versus those born abroad
  • 1850 census confirmed growing Protestant fear and alarm over arrivals of Roman Catholics from Ireland and newcomers from northern Europe
  • efforts to halt immigration failed due to economic interests: need for factory workers, railroad workers, frontier settlement, etc.
  • immigration virtually unrestricted before 1875; changed with ethnic rivalries between native Protestants and transplanted Irishmen (see Gangs of New York)
  • example of limitations for immigrants: cheap Chinese labor for building of railroads, but Chinese women largely excluded to prevent procreation and production of American-born Chinese eligible for citizenship; 1882 federal law led to decline of Chinese until WWII (when Chinese were American allies against Japan)
  • masses of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe arrived at end of nineteenth century
  • 1921: quotas set by Congress intended to freeze racial and ethnic profiles to 1910 census contours
  • quotas repealed in 1965
  • latest immigration surge similar to boom at beginning of 20th century; has also revived America’s ambivalence about immigration: Does unrestricted population growth from abroad place an unsustainable burden on the environment and social services and cost native-born workers jobs? Or do barriers at the borders constrict economic growth, deprive the nation of self-selected strivers… and challenge to very foundation of America’s unique multiculturalism?
  • diversity , with its racial and ethnic pride or raw political and economic rivalry, has always been fuel for competition and conflict
  • before nation founded: non-Hispanic whites from Europe outnumbered by native Americans, settlers of Hispanic origin from Spain and South America, and blacks brought as slaves from Africa
  • immigrants usually arrive poorer and less educated than native-born Americans; often downtrodden, but usually driven to work and prosper
  • historically, each new immigrant group has been resented by the group before
  • whereas Europe has struggled to assimilate their own immigrants from Africa and Asia, the US has been rejuvenated
  • when population growth slows, immigrant populations (largely young) support the aging population
  • 1 in 4 Americans still identify heritage as German or Irish (a legacy of nineteenth and early twentieth century upheaval in Europe)
  • immigration from Central and South America (particularly Mexico) now makes up the biggest group since Germans in 1890
  • next largest group made up of Asians
  • total of 33 ancestry groups report populations of over one million each
  • diversity remains uneven geographically, but has spread out significantly
  • historically, immigrants gravitate to cities; after a generation or two, they move to suburbs
  • some cities recruit immigrants to replenish neighborhoods and fill labor shortages; internet boom of 1990’s sparked demand for labor
  • approximately 4% of foreigners entering the US each day are immigrants: 75% of these immigrants enter legally
  • cost of immigrants depends on age and education and does not take into account all cost savings in labor and production: adult with less than high school education costs about $89,000 over lifetime; adult with high school education costs about $31,000 over lifetime; adult with more than high school education eventually contributes $105,000; descendents generally projected as financial gains to society
  • many immigrants settle and assimilate; some (like many Mexicans today or Italians earlier in 20th century) return or expect to return to native country or culture of origin
  • Hispanic and Asian immigrant groups are becoming more diverse
  • earnings, home ownership, and voting participation of immigrants all rise with growing length of settlement

Roberts, Sam. Who We Are Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004.