A new report issued by the Pew Research Center takes a look at how immigrants have impacted the U.S. population and demographics over the last 50 years, and how immigration trends will continue to shape the population over the next 50 years.
Pew reports that since 1965, 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S., giving the nation what is by far the world’s largest population of immigrants. These immigrants have been overwhelmingly from Latin America and Asia (in stark contrast to the consistently European immigrants who arrived prior to 1965).
According to Pew, during the last 50 years, these immigrants have transformed America from a nation that consisted primarily of white and black individuals, to one that today has significant proportions of both Hispanics and Asians – and one that will have no majority race or ethnicity in 2065.
The report comes at a time when immigration reform continues to be a hot topic of debate, and where – as Pew confirms – American attitudes towards immigrants are polarized. It also underscores the fact that the workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, and that employer policies and practices need to take this into account.
A copy of the report is available here.