Victor Supyan

The article aims to show the modern problems of immigration to the USA. It estimated an evolution of immigration process since the middle of 19th Century until the end  of the second decade of 21 Century. It is shown that inconsistency of immigration legislation was caused primarily by labor force demand. The author reviews in details the social economic portrait of modern immigration. It is found out that in the end of the second  decade of 21 Century there was almost 45 million immigrants in the USA. Most of them have the legal status (77%) including naturalized U.S. citizens, permanent residents or temporary residents. The rest 23% or almost 11 mln of people were unauthorized immigrants. 

Mexico is the top origin country of the US immigrant population. In 2018, roughly 11,2 mln immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 25% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest groups were from China, India, the Philippines and Central America. In 2018 the top country of origin of new immigrants coming into U.S. was China with 149000 people, followed by India (129000), Mexico (120000) and the Philippines (46000). Asians are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. by 2055 surpassing Hispanics.

Since the creation of the federal Refugees Resettlement Program in 1980, about 3 million refugees have bun resettled in the US – more than any other country.

Nearly half (45%) of the nation’s immigrants live in just three states: California (24%), Texas (11%) and Florida (10%). Texas, Florida and New York had more than 4 million immigrants each. Immigrants in the US as a whole have lower levels of education than the US – born population. Educational attainment varies among the nation’s immigrant groups. Among all immigrants those from South Asia (71%) were the most likely to have bachelor’s degree or more.

In 2018 about 29 million immigrants were working or looking for work in the US making 64% of all immigrants. Lawful immigrants made up the majority of the immigrant workforce, at 1,2 million.

According to many studies the immigrants made up significant impact on the U.S. economy. Only in 2016 immigrants added 2 trillion dollars to the US GDP and 329 billion dollars to state, local and federal taxes. Although immigrants made up just 13,7% of the US population in 2017, they made up almost 30% of all new entrepreneurs in the United States that year According to recent study by New American Economy, nearly 44% of the companies on the 2018 Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Together, these companies in fiscal 2017 brought in 5,5 trillion dollars in revenue. Immigrants own more than 1 in 5 small businesses.

The impact of immigration on the development of science in the United States is very impressive. From 1900 go 2004, over one-third of US scientists who had received Nobel Prizes were foreign-born. They play key role in many US universities, they are broadly represented at National Academy of Sciences.

The role of immigrants is strongly visible in many industries of the US economy. Immigrants with high-school degree make up 11% of American labor force. They are broadly represented in the US agriculture, in textile industry, in construction, in hotel industry.