Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 - Long-term Results

Long-term Results

Immigration did change America's demographics, opening the doors to immigrants from Latin America (especially Mexico), Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. By the 1990s, America's population growth was more than one-third driven by legal immigration and substantially augmented by illegal immigration population namely from Latin America and other parts of the developing world, as opposed to one-tenth before the act was passed into law. Ethnic and racial minorities, as defined by the US Census Bureau, rose from 25 percent of the US population during the year 1990 to 30 percent in the year 2000 and to 36.6 percent as per the results from 2011 census results . Similarly, during the same time period the Non-Hispanic white population in the United States decreased from 75 percent of the overall US population in 1990 to 70 percent in 2000 and finally to 63.4 percent during the year 2011 . It is estimated that by the year 2042, white Americans will become a minority amongst the population in the United States, while racial and ethnic minority groups, led by the Hispanics (namely Mexican Americans), Black Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islander Americans together would form the majority population in the United States. As per 2000 census, roughly 11.1 percent of the American population was foreign-born, a major increase from the low of 4.7 percent in 1970. A third of the foreign-born were from Latin America and a fourth from Asia. The act increased illegal immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, since the unlimited legal 'bracero' system previously in-place was cut.

The waves of immigration have raised both possibilities and problems. Many immigrants have taken advantage of the abundance of opportunities in the US, although some immigrant groups continue to face major challenges. For example, Asian Indians in the U.S. have a higher average income and lower poverty rate than the national average while Vietnamese Americans (mostly from refugee backgrounds) have median earnings less than the national average and a higher poverty rate. Asians and Pacific Islanders (including international students from Asia) constituted 30 percent of the student population in California's public universities by 2000 and over 38% of the student population by 2011. Immigration helped stimulate the sunbelt boom. The problems have centered on questions of multicultural identity as opposed to the melting-pot idea, debates on the economic impact of immigration, impact of illegal immigration, and fears of becoming a polyglot nation with English not the primary language.

As a result of these changes in legal immigration among other factors, America is expected to have less than 50 percent non-Hispanic whites in the total population by the year 2042.