THE IMMIGRANTS ARE COMING, THE IMMIGRANTS ARE COMING

This is the new era of the immigrants entering the United States! I have noticed a drastic difference between then and now, here in Buffalo, New York. Nationalities I’ve never even heard of, such as, Mandarin, is totally new to me. I decided to investigate, conduct research on the subject. Here is my first article on the subject: More will come, as I intend to learn more about the immigration problem — curious of the statistics at hand, statistics here in the U.S.A., and other countries.

In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million as of 2015.   The U.S. foreign born population reached 47 million, and is predicted to reach 78 million, there are twenty Metropolitan areas with the longest number of immigrants. Wow, now that is a lot!  According to the 2016 immigrant statistics, the U.S. admitted 1.18 million legal Immigrants. Of these, 48% were immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, 20% were family-sponsored, 13% refugee, and asylum seekers, 12% were employment based preference, 4.2% were part of Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, persons admitted under the Nicaraguan, and Central American Relief Act, children born subsequent to the issuance of a parent’s Visa, and certain parolees from the from Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, who were denied refugee status.

1.4% were victims of a crime, or their family members, and 1.0% who were granted the Special Immigrant Visa, (SIV) for Iraqis, and Afghans employed by U.S. government.

The remaining 0.4%, including 0.2% who were ranted suspension or deportation, as an immigrant relative of a citizen. As for our good neighbor across the border, Canada’s popularity is the immigrants’ preferred destination. It has been increasing over the past two decades, with a total of 303,257 immigrants coming to the country in 2018. This figure has minimized, since 2016, when about 323,190 immigrants came to Canada, which is more than the estimated 199,170 immigrants in 2003.

With this extreme population of immigrants, could the U.S. become over-populated in the future?  It’s a wonder why President Trump is trying to control the number of people crossing our borders.

First part of a series on immigration, by Dinah Aponte.