posted September 02, 2009 02:04 PM
Immigrants made up what percentage of the total U.S. population in 2000?6 percent
11 percent
15 percent
28 percent
ANSWER: 11 percent (11.1 percent to be exact)
In 1910, immigrants made up nearly 15 percent of the U.S. population but in 2000, immigrants made up a little more than 11 percent of the population. Immigration was at its peak during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Europeans arrived to work in the factories of the industrializing cities and the Western territories.
Census Bureau statistics for 2000 report that out of approximately 281.4 million people living in the U.S., 31.1 million were born outside the country U.S. So far, no single decade has topped 1901-1910 for immigration admissions.
In southern California , the average income of an immigrant day labor worker was $8,500 per year. On average, what percentage of this income did workers send back to their home countries?
15 percent
26 percent
31 percent
40 percent
ANSWER: 31 percent
On average, each day labor worker sent home $2,600, or 31 percent of his or her yearly income. Seventy-seven percent of these workers were from Mexico and 20 percent from Central America.
Undocumented immigrant workers take jobs away from native workers.
True
False
ANSWER: False
Studies show that undocumented immigration either has no effect on native workers or actually increases their labor market opportunities by boosting the industries that create new jobs. Immigrants create more jobs than they themselves fill. They do so directly by starting new businesses and indirectly through their expenditures on U.S. goods and services.
Undocumented immigrants often take jobs that others in the community refuse to perform. For example, the railroads across the West were largely built by Chinese immigrants, and large-scale agricultural production still relies on Mexican workers, many of whom are migrants, not immigrants.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions:
Migrant: a person who moves regularly in order to find work especially in harvesting crops
Immigrant: a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence