The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is one of the most well-known monuments to immigration. Indeed, the Americas have received large numbers of immigrants from all over the world. For instance, in the wake of the Irish potato famine over 150 years ago, 1 million Irish came to the United States. However dramatic, this event involved a small fraction of the millions of people from all over Earth who now seek better prospects: Sri Lankan boat people seeking asylum in Australia, Nicaraguans entering richer Costa Rica, Eastern Europeans moving into Western Europe, young Africans stumbling onto the beaches of southern Spain, or Mexicans immigrating to the United States (Figure 5.15).

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These encounters among people, often with different cultures and languages, have commonly involved competition for land, jobs, and other resources. Consequently, immigration is one of the most sensitive and complicated issues related to human population dynamics, and history is filled with attempts to stop or control the flow of immigrants (Figure 5.16).

Today, migration augments population growth in some regions and contributes to population declines in other regions. The main sources of immigrants are poor countries in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, whose principal destinations are rich countries in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (Figure 5.17). In the richest countries, the number of immigrant residents totaled over 111 million in 2013, or about 11% of the overall population. About 2.5 million people migrate from one country to another every year. Of this total, approximately 1 million, or 40%, legally immigrate to the United States. Another several hundred thousand persons per year illegally enter the United States. Most of the others go to Europe, Canada, or Australia.

High rates of immigration have been associated with some incidents of political and social conflict. In South Africa, for example, controversy over immigration from surrounding countries, both legal and illegal, exploded into widespread rioting and violence in 2008 and 2015. In the United States, a number of local governments and states frustrated by the number of illegal migrants have made life harder for immigrants by preventing them from getting driver’s licenses or arresting them when they cannot show proof of legal status. These legal moves have drawn opposition from the U.S. federal government and have become flashpoints for debate among political parties, citizen groups, and the U.S. Supreme Court (Figure 5.18).

Immigration policy in the United States is governed by the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which limits permanent immigrants to 675,000 annually. U.S. immigration policy has historically given priority to reuniting families, admitting immigrants with skills valuable to the U.S. economy and providing shelter to refugees. Many naturalized citizens, human rights groups, and business owners worried about their labor force have called for immigration policy reform.

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