Activity 1: Population Movement to the United States
Introduction
The United States is known as "a nation of immigrants." It has always had a large foreign-born population, but this population total has now reached an all-time high. The estimate in 2000 was 31.1 million people. During the peak immigration years of the early 20th century, the number of foreign-born residents was only about 20 million people, although as a percent of total population the foreign-born were 14.7 percent in 1910, compared with 11.1 percent in 2000.
Part One: How Has Immigration Shaped the Population Composition of the United States?
Materials Needed
- "Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America," Population Bulletin 58.2, pp. 3-5 and 23-29; pp. 20-23 (PDF: 380KB)
- Computers with Internet access
Instructions
Before beginning this activity, assign the reading as homework.
The current immigrant wave to the United States began in the early 1970s. The following websites provide a wide assortment of narrative and statistical information that can be used to create a profile of current immigrants to the United States. Use these sites to create a profile based on the following questions.
Record the source(s) used in an abbreviated parenthetical note. Note any inconsistency between sources. Why do you think there might be inconsistencies?
Web Sources
- Briefly describe today's immigrants in terms of numbers, main source areas, and skills/education.
- Identify and rank the five countries sending the largest numbers of immigrants to the United States Include numbers for the latest year available.
- What is the net economic impact on the United States of immigrant taxes and welfare benefits?
- Briefly outline the main points of the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT 90). What is the basic foundation of this act?
- What is meant by "preference levels" for immigration to the United States? Identify the preference levels Do you believe such preferences are justified? Support your opinion.
- What were the basic reasons for the record-breaking immigration in 1990 and 1991? When did it level off? Are migration numbers to the United States smaller or larger today? Why/Why not?
Extension
As extra research projects, students could:
- Visit the website: www.sentimentalrefugee.com/index.html
- Read interviews with teen immigrants from various countries.
- Participate in a class discussion of issues facing immigrants to the United States.
Or
- Investigate the topic of "immigrant remittances"—the money sent by immigrants to relatives still living in the country of origin. They might begin with the following sites:
Part Two: Who Are the Immigrants to the United States? And How Have They Changed Over Time?
Materials Needed
- Computers with Internet access
- Graphing paper or graphing software (MS Excel)
- Handout 1. Blank World Map (PDF: 698KB)
- Handout 2. Blank Map of the United States (PDF: 175KB)
- Colored pencils
Instructions
Refer to the current Yearbook for Immigration Statistics report at http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/
- Open Table 1. Use the data in this table to construct a simple line graph showing the flow of immigrants to the United States since 1820.
- Open Table 2. Note that this table provides statistics for immigrants from major world regions by decade. Construct a series of bar graphs, one for each decade including the eight major world regions listed in the table.
- Open Table 3. Scan the data for the most recent year to identify the top 15 source countries for immigration to the United States. Locate and shade these countries on a world map. Label each country and connect it to the United States with an arrow. Label each arrow with the number of immigrants who arrived.
- Consider the major immigration source countries. What conditions in these countries might account for the numbers of people leaving?
- Open Table 11. Scan the data for the most recent year in this table to identify the top 10 destination states for immigrants. Locate and shade these states on a map of the United States. Label the number of immigrants arriving in each state.
- What characteristics do these top destination state's share? Why are they so attractive to immigrants?
- How does a large immigrant population affect the cultural landscape of the places in which they settle?
Extension
- What immigrants groups live in the local community? (American FactFinder on the United States Census Bureau web site is a good source for local data: http://factfinder.census.gov )
- Are there examples of the influence of immigrant populations in the local cultural landscape?
- Create a slide show using presentation software (MS PowerPoint) based on statistics from the United States Census Bureau and images of immigrant influences in the local cultural landscape.