BM America's foreign born are just like all other Americans. As a matter of fact, all of us here in America— all of us except the American Indian, that is— are immigrants or the offspring of immigrants. in a series of reports from the 1970 Census MANY OF US ENTERED THE COUNTRY THROUGH THE EAST COAST IMMIGRATION CENTER ESTABLISHED ON ELLIS ISLAND WE, THE AMERICAN FOREIGN BORN ost of us Americans are descended from people who were born and reared here in America. Some of us can trace our lineage in this country back two or three generations to the end of the last century. And some of us can go back yet further, back to those hardy folk who carved out tiny settlements virtually with their bare hands along America's east coast some 300 years ago. Almost 10 million of us, however, must go back to Italy, or Germany, or now, in ever-increasing numbers, to China, Japan, the Philippines, or Cuba to learn about our forebears. We, who were born abroad of foreign parents and now are living in America, are America's foreign born. ELLIS ISLAND I t the turn of the century, when immigration to the '5^J | United States was much greater than it is today, many of us entered the country through the East Coast immigration center established on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Some of us arrived there near exhaustion following the 6-week ocean voyage from Europe, generally in steerage— the below-decks sections of ocean liners where the poorest travelers were berthed— and carrying less than $5 in our pockets. Many of us arrived lugging feather mattresses wrapped around what we deemed to be precious heirlooms and carrying our other possessions in bundles wrapped with string or strapped to our backs. The scenes on Ellis Island of us immigrants in peasant dress, some dancing to folk music, others huddled together shyly in family groups, were once familiar. These scenes, however, probably will never be re-enacted, unless possibly in a historical movie. In the 1920's the number of persons allowed entry was cut drastically, and Ellis Island faded into the background. By the mid- 50's Ellis Island was declared surplus, and plans were launched to make it a national shrine. Nowadays, prospective immigrants, dressed generally in modern garb, are admitted at all regular ports of entry just as visitors are. They now report to an immigration inspector trained to make necessary checks but under much less hectic conditions than prevailed in those earlier times at Ellis Island. IMMIGRATION LAWS ^i 3fc he flow of immigrants to America is now regulated by quota laws. Until the 1920's, persons seeking entry were admitted virtually at will. The only restrictions were a few laws passed by Congress in the late 1800's aimed at keeping out undesirables. Ex- cluded, too, in a separate law passed in 1882, were Chinese. The Chinese were recruited to work in gold mining camps and on railroad construction in the West. American labor, however, reacting to the low wages the Chinese were accepting, got Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act which blocked the legal entry of Chinese into America for several decades. In 1921, Congress established relatively low quotas for immigrants from nations outside the Western Hemisphere. Because most of us foreign born had been coming from Europe, the new law resulted in a sharp drop in immigra- tion. Legislation abolishing national quotas and containing new immigration provisions was passed in 1965. Under the new law there is an overall limitation on the number of persons who may be admitted, and preference is granted to close relatives of American citizens and of resident aliens. IMMIGRATION: 1820 TO 1970 <"i n g^ur Imm llll 182(1 824 1 10 1831 40 1911 20 1841 1.713,2 I 30 '14 l 40 M4.824 80 2,812,1 I 70 3,3? too ■64 y is*.* FOREIGN BORN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 1970, 1960, AND 1930 Numbers in Thousands (add 000) Country of birth 1970 1960 1930 1 Total 9,616 9,738 14,204 EUROPE 5,712 7,234 11,748 United Kingdom 686 833 1,403 Ireland 251 339 745 Norway 97 153 348 Sweden 127 214 595 Denmark 61 85 179 Netherlands 111 118 133 Switzerland 50 62 113 France 105 112 136 Germany 833 990 1,609 Poland 548 748 1,269 Czechoslovakia 161 228 492 Austria 214 305 371 Hungary 183 245 274 Yugoslavia 154 166 211 U.S.S.R. 463 691 1,154 Lithuania 76 121 194 Greece 177 159 175 Italy 1,009 1,257 1,790 Other Europe 405 409 558 ASIA 825 499 276 Western Asia 174 141 142 China 172 100 46 Japan 120 109 71 Other Asia 358 149 16 AMERICAS 2,616 1,861 2,102 Canada 812 953 1,310 Mexico 760 576 641 Cuba 439 79 18 Other America 605 253 132 All other 150 84 71 Not reported 316 60 7 1 Excludes data for Alaska and Hawaii WHO WE ARE hat are we foreign born like? What countries are we from? Where do we tend to go when we do get here? What kind of work do we do? To answer the first question: We're just like any other Americans: All of us— newcomers and oldtimers alike— are immigrants or the offspring or descendants of immigrants. And shortly after we arrive here most of us blend into the American mainstream and we become, then, Americans. The 1970 census shows a large proportion of America's foreign born came from Europe, some came from Asia, and relatively large numbers came from Canada, Mexico, and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Events abroad often foreshadowed a movement of specific groups of foreign nationals to America. Many Germans came here between 1840 and 1850 because of political unrest and poor economic conditions at home. The potato famine in Ireland sent thousands of Irish streaming through the blighted countryside to seaports and ships bound for America in the late 1840's and 1850's. British, French, Norwegians, and Swedes, at one time or another, felt the push of economic pressures at home and the pull of prospective free land and good wages here in America and made the move to the New World. And it was famine in the Canton region of China, coupled with a need for laborers here, that resulted in the influx of Chinese to America between 1850 and 1882. MOST OF US ARE FROM EUROPE overnment immigration records, started in 1820, show that most of us foreign born have come here from Europe. Of 9.6 million foreign born counted in the 1970 census, 5.7 million were of European origin. Of the total of nearly 42 million people who came here between 1820 and 1960, 34 million were European. In colonial days most of America's immigrants came from Great Britain and Ireland (Eire), with a sprinkling from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. During the 19th Century the source of the flow changed: The English and Irish continued to come here, but Germans began coming in ever-increasing num- bers. In the 1890's, however, the flow changed again, and Italians began flocking to our shores. From the middle of the decade until the start of World War I, Italian immigrants comprised about a quarter of all persons admitted to this country. Between World Wars I and II, Italian immigration dropped off, only to resume again shortly after World War II, although it never did return to the level of the 1895- 1914 period. Reflecting in part the great influx of Italians to America in 1895-1914, the foreign born counted in the 1970 census included over a million persons of Italian origin. Counted in the census, too, were over 832,000 persons from Germany. Although a relatively large number of Canadians entered the country over a 20-year period following the end of the Civil War, the flow slackened off only to resume in 1908. There were few immigrants from Mexico until 1909, but since then except for the period from 1931 to 1952 immigrants from our neighbor to the south have been coming in to the United States in large numbers. The 1970 census showed that over 800,000 of our foreign born were from Canada and another 760,000 from Mexico. WE SETTLE NEAR OUR 'PORTS OF ENTRY' <^j w mmigrants to America tend to settle in the general I area of their port of entry. More than two-thirds i M of those who came here from Italy, for example, live in the northeastern part of the country, where they landed. Similarly, more than half of the foreign born who immigrated here from China and Japan and landed on our west coast, have remained in the West. And, of course, most immigrants from Mexico live in the States that border on Mexico: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. STATES WITH LARGE NUMBERS OF FOREIGN BORN: 1970 (Includes, by State, countries from which the foreign born have emigrated and numbers of people from these countries) NATIVITY AND PARENTAGE NEW YORK CALI FORNIA NEW JERSEY ILLI- NOIS MASSA CHUSETTS PENNSYL VANIA MICHI- GAN OHIO TEXAS Total population 18.236.882 16.127,106 12,241,661 3,885,445 2.109.776 2,109.776 109,895 93,818 17,371 13,534 6,366 1 1 ,421 8,493 23,681 183,754 168,370 32,363 65,606 43,506 22,440 147,993 10.417 44,478 352,711 82,314 133,114 43,517 42.425 10.784 36.388 85.176 4,806 72,224 284,767 23,646 67,512 19,957,304 18,199,314 14,965,225 3,234,089 1.757,990 1,757,990 129.957 20,342 1 1 ,894 18,472 14,111 27,993 13,108 21,743 105,675 31,449 12,790 20,249 21,994 19.447 55,465 5,255 14,971 80,495 59,768 275,540 31,973 66,397 44,550 132.620 153,725 4 1 1 ,008 36,429 108,969 41,040 46,101 7,168,143 6,533,325 5,012,280 1,521,045 634,818 634,818 49,565 18,186 5,237 4,109 2,704 8,575 4,113 7,150 66,896 49,516 12,070 16,827 20,235 7,682 33,166 4.049 10,585 116,444 30,126 27.569 10.919 4.093 2.561 9,996 18,185 1,136 59,282 34.645 5,154 21,612 11,109,450 1 0.480,552 8,907,709 1,572,843 628,898 628,898 29,718 19,579 6,479 18.091 4.698 5,825 2.311 5,117 68,259 72,027 19,318 16,566 1 1 ,469 23.427 29.590 18.276 22.308 60,243 21,145 40,449 9,1 11 6,863 4,566 19,909 21,875 50,098 15.607 20,656 4,462 21.305 5.688.903 5,194,243 3,797,179 1,397,064 494,660 494.660 39,607 33,967 2,309 7,632 1,149 2,118 1.294 4,227 16,303 25,009 1,624 3.839 1.873 667 23,505 7,551 16,019 70,415 44.648 23,681 9,663 5,690 1,601 6.727 109.714 763 5,092 16,241 18,702 16,711 11,793,864 11,347,969 9,660,824 1,687.145 445,895 445,895 41,148 14,971 1,226 2,305 1,015 1,919 1,638 4,425 41,609 37,917 19,886 21,873 14,163 11,825 36,084 6,056 8,929 93,758 13,473 21,177 6,881 3,258 2,017 9,021 13,318 1,482 3,210 9,807 3,420 19,261 8,875,068 8,450,759 7,190,798 1,259,961 424,309 424.309 44,849 4,362 1,502 4,438 2,379 15,095 1,060 3,120 34,637 42,499 6.871 7.881 9.743 10.756 17,134 4,113 7,760 31,986 26,048 25.783 13.296 3.026 1.838 7.623 90,696 7,604 2,046 6,967 3,212 11,768 10,650,903 10,334,407 9,339,557 994,850 316,496 316,496 25,478 5,088 703 2,002 860 1,909 1,375 2,990 35,777 22,662 17,562 11.641 22.228 25,151 13,870 3,369 8,536 36,164 14,376 19.834 6,772 2,542 1,788 8.732 18.190 2,621 2,199 5,724 2,813 13,376 11,195,416 10.885 644 Native parentage . . . .^ Foreign or mixed parentage . , . 9.996.398 889.246 309.772 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Total foreign born .... 309.772 12,486 Ireland 1.798 594 1,105 Denmark Netherlands 711 1,522 626 2,225 19,386 Poland 2,802 3,568 2,122 1.172 641 USSR Lithuania Greece Italy 2,678 311 1,963 3,696 3.481 Asia 17,800 3,546 China' . ' 3,738 3 313 Other Asia Canada 7,203 8,859 193,639 Cuba Other America 5,378 10,331 2 610 Not reported 8.268 Includes West Germany and East Germany. Includes Turkey in Europe. 1 Includes Taiwan and Mainland China. MORE THAN 40 PERCENT IN TWO STATES <« S| he Nation's two largest States together have more than two-fifths of all the foreign born in America. New York, with a 1970 total of 18.2 million people, had 2.1 million foreign born, while Cali- fornia, with 20 million people in 1970, had 1 .8 million. New York's 1970 foreign born came mostly from Italy (353,000), Germany (184,000), and Poland (168,000). From China, Japan, and other Asian nations there were only 133,000. In California, on the other hand, more of the foreign born were from Asian nations (a total of 276,000) than from these three European nations (about 217,000). It's well known that relatively large numbers of Cana- dians have settled in States along our border with Canada--- States such as New York and Michigan, for example. A little known fact is that in one of those border States, North Dakota, the country with the largest contingent of foreign born in the 1970 census was the Soviet Union! The census showed that 4,400 of the State's total of 18,400 foreign born were from the U.S.S. R. And, although the largest contingent of foreign born living in Michigan in 1970 was from Canada, it's not so well known that people from Poland represented the third largest contingent among that State's foreign born. The census figures show that more than 10 percent of Michi- gan's 424,000 foreign born hailed from Poland. ....AND WE HAVE SETTLED IN CITY AREAS In recent decades, most of us immigrants have settled in urban areas---generally in the big cities and their suburbs. The 1970 census shows 91 percent of us living in urban areas (generally, places of 2,500 or more and their built-up environs). For the United States as a whole, only 73 percent of the population lived in such areas. And, more particularly, about half of us live in the "central cities" of metropolitan areas, as against only 31 percent of the population as a whole. ABOUT HALF OF US LIVE IN THE 'CENTRAL CITIES' OF METROPOLITAN AREAS l 3* 10 OUR AGE AND OUR SEX 7q Is to our age— -we're young and we're old. Sound 1^^^ I like a contradiction? Here's the explanation: ^L Sdl Those who arrived since 1960 are younger than the population as a whole. But these new arrivals, taken with those of us who have been here for longer periods of time, combine to form a relatively old segment of the population. As an illustration— 86 percent of the recent arrivals (since 1960) are under 45. For the popula- tion as a whole, only 69 percent are under that age. When we look at the total of 9.6 million foreign born we see that many of us came to America at the turn of the century, during the heyday of immigration. These folk, now in their 70's, 80's, and 90's, made the median (half-above and half-below) age of all the foreign born at the time of the 1970 census 52! And 10 years earlier, the median was 57.2! The median age for all Americans in 1970 was 28.1. Looked at differently— 32 percent of the foreign born were 65 or older at the time of the recent census, whereas less than 10 percent of all Americans were that old on census day. A majority of us immigrants up until the year 1922 were male. In fact, the male proportion was around the 60 percent mark for about 100 years starting in 1820. The dip in the year 1922 was to 48.4 percent but then, in 1923 and for several following years, the percentage of males admitted again went above the 50 percent mark. In 1930 the percentage of males among the newcomers to America again dropped to 48.4 and then began, year by year, to decline. In 1946 an all-time low was registered when only 25 percent of those admitted were male. During the 1960's 45 percent of the incoming im- migrants were male— about the same percentage as were the foreign born males among all the foreign born in the 1970 census. The number of males in the general population was 49 percent of the total at the time. WHAT WE'RE DOING-OUR OCCUPATIONS v* m m hen it comes to our jobs, we're like all other Americans. We're laborers, craftsmen, sales work- ers, professionals—in short, we cover the same range of occupations as the rest of the population. There was a time when most of us new arrivals were laborers or farm workers. Almost three-fifths of us who came here in the early 1900's were listed as laborers, farm workers, or household and service workers. Of those who came here during the 1960's only 15 percent were in these lines of work. On the other hand, during the earlier period, only 1 percent of us new arrivals were professional, technical, or similar workers, whereas those who immigrated here during the '60s included over 10 percent of these types of workers. The percentage of new arrivals who were craftsmen, foremen, or who worked in similar lines, has remained remarkably level from 1900 on. It was 13 percent of the immigrants in the 1901-1910 period and it was just down to 11 percent between 1961 and 1970. There has been a gradual upward trend— although the numbers and percentages are small— in the number of clerks and sales people who have immigrated to America since 1900. Only 1.1 percent of the immigrants of the 1901-1910 period were in these lines of work. During the past decade, the percentage was 7.4. A large proportion— well over 50 percent— of those admitted in recent decades were listed as having "no occupation." In the 1901-1910 period only 26 percent were in this category. WE COVER THE SAME RANGE OF OCCUPATIONS AS THE REST OF THE POPULATION OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS: 1900 TO 1970 Percent distribution Period Total 1961-70 100.0 1951-60 100.0 1941-50 100.0 1931-40 100.0 1921-30 100.0 1911-20 100.0 1901-10 100.0 Professional, technical, and kindred workers 10.2 7.3 7.9 7.2 2.7 1.7 1.0 Clerical, sales, and kindred workers 7.4 7.8 7.9 4.5 4.3 2.0 1.1 Craftsmen, foremen, operative and kindred workers 11.1 14.4 13.3 8.1 14.4 12.9 13.2 Laborers except farm and mine 3.9 5.3 2.4 3.6 15.0 17.9 26.1 Hlaneons No occupation 11.6 55.9 12.3 52.8 13.8 54.7 18.5 58.1 24.3 39.2 35.9 29.6 32.9 25.7 Data are for fiscal years ending June 30. Includes farmers, farm managers, managers, officials, pro- prietors, private household workers, service workers, farm laborers and foremen. 13 HOW MUCH SCHOOLING WE'VE HAD OUR INCOMES — stn. eflecting in part our relatively old age, we have had m^^M less schooling than the population as a whole. | \\ Median school years completed for the foreign ^^ ^^born in 1970 was 7.4 years. For all Americans 25 and older, both males and females, the 1970 census figure was 12.1 years. But these numbers may convey a wrong impression. When we speak of the foreign born we speak of people whose average age is 52. Older adults in the U.S. generally have had less schooling than the younger adult groups. Thirty years ago, to put the educational attainment matter in better perspective, when hundreds of thousands of 1970's older foreign born were in their teens and 20's, the average number of years of school completed for all Americans was 8.6 years, only a year or so higher than the present-day figure for the foreign born. Median income of the 3.3 million families headed by a foreign-born person in 1969, the year covered for income by the 1970 census, was $9,026 -not appreciably lower than the $9,590 median for all U.S. families. And in considering families with incomes "below the low-income level," as defined by the Federal Government, the percentage of families headed by a foreign-born person in this category was just about the same as for all families in the United States: 11 percent. OUR PLACE IN AMERICA'S FUTURE !e immigrants are now coming to America at a rate of almost 4 million a decade. With the American birthrate dropping as it has been during the past several years, we newcomers are becoming a more significant force in America's population picture. Census Bureau statisticians have made a pair of projections of the population to the year 2000 using as a base a net of 4 million immigrants each 10 years. Under one of these projections, one with women having a relatively large number of babies— 2.8 babies per woman of child-bearing age— America's population would rise 91.6 million by 2000. Of this number, the Census Bureau calculates, 17 percent would represent those entering the country over the 28-year period (from 1972) together with their survivors and descendants. ■ But if America's women continue to have fewer and fewer babies— only 1.8 per woman of child bearing age— the population will go up only 41 .8 million in the 28 years and although we "immigrant women," just as other American women, will be having fewer babies, we recent arrivals and our offspring will constitute a high 34 percent of the increase. It is probable the birthrate will be somewhere in between the two birthrates used as examples, and it's possible the number of us entering the country may go up or down. However, we the foreign born are sure to play an important role in the future population picture in America. No other nation in the history of the world has welcomed more immigrants with more willingness and goodwill than America. Our very name symbolizes the "melting pot," a nation wherein men and women from every land have come together to live and grow as one country. Be we Irish, Italian, German, Polish, Chinese, Japanese— no matter where we may have been born— we are today, first and foremost, Americans. It is this very diversity which makes America so unique. Population Projections to Year 2000 HIGH PROJECTION 91.6 Million by 2000 LOW PROJECTION 41.8 Million by 2000 IMMIGRANTS IMMIGRANTS 200 WE NEWCOMERS ARE BECOMING A MORE SIGNIFICANT FORCE IN AMERICA'S POPULATION PICTURE *fi Imp Ml