Immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States is the international movement of individuals who are not natives or do not possess citizenship in order to settle, reside, study or to take-up employment in the country. It has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States.

In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015.This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the U.S. population. Many other countries have significantly higher percentages, such as e.g. Switzerland with 24.9% immigrants.

The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

Prior to 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Western Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Eastern European immigration. The civil rights movement led to the replacementof these ethnic quotas with per-country limits. Since then, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled.

Research suggests that immigration to the United States is beneficial to the US economy. With few exceptions, the evidence suggests that immigration on average has positive economic effects on the native population, but is mixed as to whether low-skilled immigration adversely affects low-skilled natives. Studies also indicate that immigration either has no impact on the crime rate or that it reduces the crime rate in the United States. Research shows that the United States excels at assimilating first- and second-generation immigrants relative to many other Western countries.