Information, for example, tells us that the United States is a country with an area of 3.6

million square miles and has a population density of only 66 people per square mile. By

comparison, the population density of Italy is 491, that of the Netherlands 918, and that

of West Germany 635 people per square mile. Also of basic interest is how the U.S.

population can be categorized by race and ethnic origin.

The total number of Americans in 1980, about 83 percent considered themselves

"white," 12 percent "black," over 6 percent "Hispanic," and so on. "Considered

themselves" is important, for all these figures were based upon "self-identification." In

other words, Americans themselves determined with which groups they wished to be

Resident Population by Race and Spanish Origin (1980 Census) identified. With the

exception of one group, American Indians, there are no official definitions that can be

used to say which American is what. So basically, as an American, you are what you say

you are. Some Americans obviously felt they belonged to two or more races or ethnic

groups.

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These national percentages do not indicate how the various groups are

represented in the individual states, cities, or communities. As might be expected,

they are not evenly distributed 60 across the nation. In Mississippi, for example,

blacks make up about 35 percent of that state's population, whereas in Wyoming they

represent less than 1 percent. In the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., blacks form

the majority, with around 70 percent of the population, while the figure for Los

Angeles is 17 percent or around 500,000 people. Other groups are also unevenly

distributed. Hispanic Americans, for instance, represent only 6.4 percent of the

national population. Yet in Texas about one in every five Americans (21 percent) is

"of Spanish origin" and in Mexico more than one in three (36.6 percent). In 17 states,

Hispanic Americans form the largest "minority."

The American Indian population in the United States increased about 70

percent from 1970 to 1980. Only 1.4 million (0.6%) of the population can be legally

defined as American Indians. However, some historians believe that this is more than

there were when the first European explorers arrived in the New World. At that time,

they claim, about one million "Native Americans" were living in what is today the

United States.

A Majority of Minorities?

26.5 million Americans categorized themselves as “black”. But a smaller number,

21 million, identified themselves as “Afro-American” or “African.” Similarly, only1.4

million Americans were classified as American Indians. When asked to identify their

ancestry, however, 6.7 million claimed an American Indian heritage. If Americans are

seen only in terms of majorities and minorities, whites and blacks, what is to be done,

then, with Americans who claim Polish or Hungarian ancestry? Are they a “ minority”?

There is no special category given for “Jew” or “Jewish”. Would this be an ancestry, an

ethnic group, a race, a religion, or even all of these? Some 14 million people of “other

races” are also represented in the U.S. Is such a minority category also a minority in

itself or simply an unspecified number of minorities? The vast majority of Americans

could, if the wished, include themselves among one or more “minority” categories or

groups.

Changing Patterns of Immigration

Where Americans came from and when they came, does not define how they see

themselves today. It is interesting to see, though, how the immigration patterns have

changed over time. These changing patterns do affect, and have affected, what America

is today and how Americans view the rest of the world.

Between 1861 and 1960, the majority of immigrants came from Europe. But during the

past 25 30 years the largest share of immigrants has come from Latin America and Asia.

In 1984, for instance, 64,100 immigrants from Europe were legally admitted to the U.S.

By contrast, legal immigration from the southern Americas (mainly 35 Mexico, the West

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Indies, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia) was 193,500. An additional

256,300 legal immigrants came from Asia (mainly the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, and

China).

The millions of "de facto Americans" - and no one knows exactly how many

there really are - are not included in the figures shown above. The Census Bureau

estimates that there are some three to six million "illegal immigrants" already living

in the U.S., about two-thirds of them from Mexico. It is also estimated that more than

one and a half million more illegal immigrants from Mexico are presently crossing

into the United States each year. It is not clear what effect a new immigration law,

passed in 1986, will have on these "illegal aliens." The law gives legal status to those

who can prove that they have been in the U.S. since 1982. This would allow an

estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens to qualify for citizenship. What is very clear is that

the so-called European heritage of America is undergoing a major change as more

and more people from Latin America and from Asian countries enter U.S. society.

Growing numbers of Americans will be able to say that they, or their parents or

grandparents, came from these regions. As a consequence, the American view of the

world is more likely to be towards the south and west.

Immigration Laws

Some of these changes have been brought about by changes in the immigration

laws. Until the 1850s, immigration to the U.S. had been largely unrestricted, with some

90 percent of all immigrants coming from Europe. In the 1920s, a number of measures

were taken to limit immigration, especially from Asian countries and southern and

eastern Europe. The overall number of immigrants was limited by law and quotas were

set for countries and, later, "hemispheres." In 1968, this quota system was abolished. An

annual limit of 170,000 was set for immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere and

120,000 for the Western Hemisphere. Ten years later, the separate limits for the two

hemispheres were abolished in favor of a worldwide limit of 290,000 per year. In

addition, however, special measures were taken to allow large numbers of refugees from

several regions (especially East Asia and Central and South America) to enter the U.S.

Thus, the average number of immigrants legally admitted throughout the 1970s was

about 430,000 per year. The number jumped to 654,000 in 1980, reflecting a new wave

of Cuban refugees. In recent years, the number of immigrants officially admitted to the

U.S. was around 550,000 per year. The 1986 immigration law, while imposing stiff

penalties on American businesses that employ illegal aliens, is noteworthy for its attempt

to give legal status and citizenship to those illegal immigrants who are, in all but law,

already Americans.

Why They Came - Why They Come

Major changes in the pattern of immigration have been caused by wars,

revolutions, periods of starvation, persecutions, religious intoleration, and, in short, by

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any number of disasters which led people to believe that America was a better place

to be. More than a million Irish, for instance, emigrated to America between 1846 and

1851 in order to escape starvation and disease in Ireland. During the same period, large

numbers of other Europeans fled political persecution. And in the 1870s another wave of

refugees left the political turmoil of eastern and southern Europe to seek freedom and a

future in America. The largest streams of European immigrants came between 1900 and

1920, that is, before, after, and during World War I. At other times, for example, during

the Depression and during World War II, smaller numbers of immigrants came to the

U.S. Since the 1960s, more and more people have fled the poverty and wars in Asia and

Latin America in the hope of finding a better life in the United States.

There is, of course, another side to America's ethnic pluralism and racial variety,

one that Americans, more than any other people, are aware of. The first slaves brought to

what is today the United States arrived in Virginia on board a Dutch ship in 1619. On the

eve of the American Revolution, slavery was already firmly established in what was

shortly to be the United States of America. In 1776, probably about a fifth of all