The American newspaper The New York Times attempted to explain the magnitude of the current immigration wave to the United States. Through government data and analysis by experts on the subject, the paper considered the arrival of immigrants in the country as the largest in history.
The authors of the article highlighted:
According to the publication, the increase in immigration since 2021 is the largest in U.S. history, surpassing even the levels of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The net immigration total — the number of people arriving in the country minus the number leaving — is likely to exceed eight million people over the past four years, government statistics suggest. This number includes both legal and illegal immigration.
Never has the annual net immigration come close to two million for an extended period, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office.
Even taking into account today’s larger population, the increase is slightly greater than during the peak years of traffic through Ellis Island, when millions of Europeans came to the United States.
The share of the U.S. population born in another country reached a record as a result. This share hit 15.2% in the summer of 2023 (and has continued to rise over the past 18 months). The previous high of 14.8% occurred in 1890, and the share remained high for decades afterward.
President Biden’s welcoming immigration policy may be one reason for the recent increase.
Government officials argue that external events, such as turmoil in Haiti, Ukraine, and Venezuela, were the main cause of the increase. Undoubtedly, these events also played a role. But the sharp decline in immigration levels since last summer — when Biden tightened the rules — indicates that government policies have been a significant factor, the paper states.
More than half of the net immigration since 2021 occurred among people who entered the country illegally. Of the approximately eight million net immigrants who came to the U.S. in the last four years, about five million — or 62% — were unauthorized, according to an estimate from Goldman Sachs.
The unprecedented scale of recent immigration helps explain why the issue has played such a large role in the 2024 election. Surveys have shown that the sharp increase in immigration is unpopular among most Americans, especially among working-class voters, who complain about poor social services, overcrowded schools, and rising homelessness.
But, according to the NYT, the recent surge in immigration is likely to come to an end. Trump has promised to impose even tougher border rules next year. He has also been promising to deport millions of immigrants who entered the country illegally.
Source: The New York Times