Timelines

Unlike the primarily European immigration at the turn of the twentieth century, this new wave brought individuals in the tens of millions, especially from Asia and Latin America, over the next four decades. Europeans went from making up over fifty percent of the migrant population in the 1950s to only sixteen percent in the 1990s. By contrast, thirty-one percent of migrants were of Asian-decent in the 1990s, compared with only six percent in the 1950s. Additionally, from 1965 to 2000, the largest concentration of migrants (4.3 million individuals) came from Mexico. During the same period, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, India, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam all saw between 700,000 and 800,000 migrants leave for the U.S. The tremendous influx of migrants from countries outside of Europe greatly diversified the face of the American population.