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Shows errors in official data relating to how many immigrants the United States receives per year.

These maps show interesting patterns of immigration in the U.S. and where immigrants are most likely to go.

This graph portrays the fluctuations in immigration to the United States, starting with 1850 until 2011. There is a dramatic decrease in immigration through the years 1930-1960, for these were the periods of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War with Russia. In addition, there is a decreasing in immigration between the decades of 1990-2000 and 2000-2010 due to the U.S. recession.

I question why immigration had not picked up in the 50's and 60's, when the wealth had picked up in the States. Had the depression hit other nations by then?

I wonder why immigration was so low during WWII because you would think that Europeans would've wanted to get out of there as soon as possible to get away from the violence, and America would've been the perfect place to escape.

Mexican immigrants appear to settle in CA the most. This may due to the situation of CA and Mexico and the amount of job opportunities involving agriculture.

Once again, California leads the nation in immigrants, this time from Afghanistan. People may come to California for the plentiful job opportunities and the area of access: a coastline only a few hours east of the Middle East.

The largest percentage of Polish are currently in Illinois. This may be due to the presence of the polish culture that these folks are attracted to, drawing them in. The second most is in New York. This is most likely due to the fact that many Polish migrate through NY and as Ravenstein says that many people settle near their entry and the farther you leave that point the less there are (paraphrased to what he said.)

We have already touched on the topic that a large amount of immigrants today are from Asia and Latin America. In the future it is expected that America will see an increase of immigrants that are skilled workers. These mass migrations in the future will most likely not be for economic reasons, but will be for personal reasons or forces in history.

Indian immigrants that reside in the US make up the third largest immigrant group in the nation. This is most likely because of the freedoms that Americans have that Indians don't usually have, plus the protection and job opportunities are equally attractive to migrants.

I'm not surprised that there are so many Indian immigrants. The crisis at hand in India is the unstable rise in population. With this issue, many citizens are probably looking to leave the country if they have the chance.

It does seem that there is a rising Indian influence in the United States... I imagine they migrate primarily to large cities and/or states like California, a state with plentiful, arable land. This would make sense, as these conditions precipitate ample job opportunities. This is key, as the exploding population in India induces growing job scarcity, as Brendan touched on.

It makes sense that the number of children of immigrants continues over time. This is because the immigrant numbers continue to increase and the TFR for immigrants in the U.S. is most likely the same as the U.S. overall. This would cause the numbers to increase as the U.S. population increases.

Border control and immigration has been heated topic lately. How does this problem relate to geography?

What's one new idea you learned from this resource? How would the world be different if people weren't forced to migrate or people weren't restricted in their movement?  Post your comments, APHUG. Let's get a discussion going! 

One new idea that I learned from this resource is that, regarding population, "One of every six people on earth is an adolescent" and also that "Children and adolescents constitute some 50% of all refugees assisted by UNHCR." This idea shows that forced migration greatly influences young people because young people are a major group who make up the group of refugees that get help from the UNHCR. The world would be different if people weren't forced to migrate or if people weren't restricted in their movement by containing less safe environments because terrorists could come into a country more easily. If people weren't forced to migrate, more land areas might be more sparsely populated.

If people weren't forced to migrate, some cultures would thrive while others might not survive at all! In Europe today, there are many strict immigration laws that try to limit the amount of immigrants from many countries in Africa and Asia. One reason that these laws are so strict is to try to preserve the culture. So imagine what it would be like if there were no immigration restrictions at all! The culture in Europe would become mixed and intermingled with the cultures of countries all over the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it would just be different. Also, because of the idea of increasing globalization, the cost of migrating is decreasing (relatively), so the intervening obstacles are also decreasing. This makes it easier for more people to migrate if they are looking for economic opportunities. And when they do move, they will bring their culture with them. The land they leave behind, if enough people move, will then be deprived of the previous inhabitant's culture. So overall, many different cultures would be greatly affected if there was no restriction on immigration.

The reason why so many Cubans are located in Florida and especially in Miami is because it is only a short distance between Cuba and Florida, allowing for easy access. The other areas are major cities and metropolitan areas that will provide many job opportunities.

I think that you are right in the fact that many of the immigrants would be going toward the cities in search of different jobs. They would probably want to get a higher paying job so maybe send money to family back home.

Most native Cubans that live in America are found in similar latitudes and climates as Cuba itself. Most live in states that are farther south, like Florida, Texas, Nevada, and California. The exceptions are New Jersey and New York, where many immigrants come through, and there are many jobs. This suggests that immigrants often try to live in a climate that may be similar to the one that they are used to.

I think it is interesting how there were more foreign born immigrants on the western side of the disaster area of Hurricane Rita in the South.

An explanation for why the west side of the disaster area has more foreign born immigrants could be because those areas are located close to a large city.

It is interesting that most of the foreign born immigrants were born near the west. This is probably because the west suffered from less hurricane damage than the rest of the region, so migrants decided to move to the west.

The graph shows that each decade, there are more children born from immigrants than the prior decade. This must be a result from the increasing amount of immigrants coming to the United States.

Wow this is very unusual to me because I expected there to be more Mexican born people in Texas because it is on the border but instead there are more in California which is still a ways from Mexico.

The U.K. hasn't been willing to let in a lot of immigrants since world war 2. They made a policy that increased the strictness of how many people were allowed into the country.

Check out these statistics, APHUG.  How is ethnicity distributed across the United States?

Many children are crossing the border to the US to have a better life, which will put a strain on the US budget. The theme of mobility is shown in this current event. The immigrants move from place to place bringing their ideas and practices, which will eventually change the culture.

I took a look at this map and wasn't surprised to see that many immigrants to America settle along the coasts/borders of the United States. The map legend indicates that regions with darker blue have higher a high percent of foreign born citizens within their county. Much of the south west border is dark blue, evidently due to is proximity to Mexico, a country undergoing violence from the eternal drug wars. In addition, major cities here and there, such as New York City, display dark blue. This is logical, as these cities provide job opportunities and serve as major ports, historically and in the present today.

Also look at the area around Louisiana. It's interesting that there is a small amount of migrants there knowing that the islands off the coast are not too far away. I would figure that there is a small amount of immigrants there, because of Hurricane Katrina, and the thought that that area is more vulnerable to natural disasters than other areas.