The US Census Bureau is an agency of the federal government agency whose mission is keeping track of myriad details regarding the American population. Once a decade the Census Bureau conducts a general census, or count, sending brief questionnaires and interviewers to every household in the country. In the intervening years it carries out more focused surveys, questioning selected families and organizations about details such as employment, income, housing, education, and child care. Information from both the Decennial Census and the American Community Surveys is used for many purposes, including determining how federal funds will be allocated among various neighborhoods and services and how congressional districts are defined.
In addition to collecting data, the Census Bureau regularly analyzes that information and produces, among other documents, the annual Statistical Abstract of the United States, comprehensive population maps and tables, and infographics such as the one we reproduce here. “America’s Foreign Born in the Last 50 Years” draws on multiple census counts and surveys to examine immigrant populations as they were composed in 1960 and 2010.
Look at the infographic, and respond to the following questions.
How many people living in the United States today were born elsewhere? Has the percentage of immigrants relative to the total population increased or decreased?
What principle of classification does the Census Bureau use to categorize immigrants in the United States? From where do the majority of foreign-born residents hail?
What regions of the United States have the highest concentrations of foreign-born residents?
OTHER METHODS The graphs and maps prepared by the Census Bureau COMPARE AND CONTRAST aspects of the foreign-born population fifty years ago and today. How has the immigrant population changed?
Research how US immigration officials determine which would-be immigrants to the United States will be granted or denied entrance, based on country of origin and other factors. In an essay, explain these policies and evaluate their fairness as you see it.
CONNECTIONS Several writers in The Bedford Reader and The Brief Bedford Reader touch on issues related to immigration. Amy Tan (Chap. 4), Junot Díaz (Chap. 4), Kellie Young (Chap. 6), Andrea Roman (Chap. 7), Firoozeh Dumas (Chap. 8), and Christine Leong (Chap. 12), in particular, write about their experiences as children of immigrant parents. Using information from the Census Bureau and at least two of these writers’ selections — and drawing on your own experience, if you like — write an essay about the difficulties and value of adapting to life in a new country. Consider, especially, the tensions that may arise between foreign-born parents and children born (or raised from a young age) in the United States.