Latin American Immigration Research Paper

Immigration to the United States of America has been an ongoing process since colonizing America. The changing pattern of immigration has varied throughout the last century. These changes were brought on by new immigration laws, political, economical, and demographic pressures. The most profound changes in immigration patterns occurred after the Immigration Law Reform in 1965 resulting in immigration from countries that did not send immigrants before, and a dramatic increase of immigrants from previous sending countries. For example Europe, which accounted for two-thirds of legal immigrants in the 1950s, added only 15 percent in the 1980s.

Modern immigrants groups after 1965 came from Vietnam, the Philippines, South East Asia, Latin America and the latest major influx from Africa. The increase in Asian immigration has been the most dramatic. While the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had ended immigration from China, immigration from Japan and the Philippines to Hawaii and the continental United States continued to the early 1900s. Japanese Immigration had been restricted by the Gentleman 's Agreement of 1907, and the immigration Acts of 1924 ended all Asian immigration by establishing a fixed quota in the proportion of the national population in 1880. Before the
Latin Americans come from all over the continent. In 1960, they made up 9 percent of the foreign born population in the United States. By 1990 the population numbered 8.4 Million and an estimate of the U. S. Census Bureau from the year 2000 shows that there are 31 million Latinos living in the United States of America. In earlier immigration periods, the sending countries where not as numerous. Poverty and the lack of transportation prevented many immigrants to leave their country. When the United States started recruiting workers for ammunition factories, immigration increased rapidity. More recent immigrants come from a multitude of different