IMMIGRATION AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
Until the First World War, the Europeans were by far the main contingent of immigrants. Among them, western, northern, and central Europeans, including the Germans, dominated until around 1880, while from around 1880 immigrants from southern and eastern Europe – including numerous Jews who fled the pogroms in Tsarist Russia – formed the majority.
After a period of four decades with comparatively low numbers of immigrants, the reform of the immigration laws in 1965 resulted in a new flow of immigration that has continued to the present day. However, the composition of the immigrants changed fundamentally: In addition to the group of Asians, which is strongly differentiated according to countries of origin, immigrants from Latin America, especially from neighboring Mexico, currently dominate. In addition to the official immigrants, there is a growing number of people who have entered the country “illegally” in search of work and an improvement in their living conditions. Their number in the US was estimated at 11 million in 2012. For around half of these people, an amnesty and a deportation freeze were promised in 2014, for example immigrants,
Heavy immigration after 1960 led to a profound reshaping of the population structure in the United States. Whereas in 1970 people of European descent still accounted for 83.2 percent of the population, their share fell to 63.0 percent by 2012; According to forecasts, their share will drop to 50 percent by the middle of the 21st century.
Asians and Hispanics are seeing growing proportions. The latter have already outnumbered African Americans (2012: 16.9% and 12.3%, respectively). Hispanics are the population with Spanish as their mother tongue, regardless of their nationality. Contrary to the image of the USA as a “nation of immigrants” or “melting pot”, there are sometimes major problems with regard to equality and participation in public and economic life.
The changes in the population structure are also related to the age structure and demographic behavior. As in many other industrialized countries, the proportion of young people is falling in the USA and the proportion of older people is increasing. The age structure in the USA also shows differences in terms of population groups. The age structure of the population of European descent shows the shape of an urn (i.e. the total fertility rate TFR is below 2.1 children per woman), that of the Afro-American population, on the other hand, the shape of a beehive (i.e. the total fertility rate TFR is around 2.1). For more information about the continent of North America, please check dentistrymyth.com.
