Immigrants have been a part of American history for centuries, with multiple generations of people coming to the United States from all over the world to create new lives for themselves and their families. The data provided by the Migration Policy Institute denotes that the United States attracts the largest number of immigrants in the world, who join the fabric of the American society through different avenues (Bush et al. 2009).
The term “immigrant” used here (also known as the foreign born) refers to people residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), certain legal nonimmigrants (e.g., persons on student or work visas), those admitted under refugee or asylum status, and persons illegally residing in the United States (Zong & Batalova, 2016). Immigrants percentage and reasons for immigration have differed throughout the years. In 1850, there were 2.2 million immigrants in the United States, representing nearly 10 percent of the population (Gibson and Jung, 2005). That percentage peaked at 14.8 percent in 1890, mainly due to high levels of immigration from Europe escaping famine, religious persecution, and political conflicts. Restrictive immigration legislation in 1921 and 1924, coupled with the great depression and World War II, led to a sharp drop in new arrivals. As a result, the foreign-born share steadily declined between the 1930s and 1970s, reaching a record low of approximately 5 percent in 1970. Since 1970, the share and number of immigrants have increased rapidly, mainly as a result of large-scale immigration from Latin America and Asia made possible by the abolishment of national-origin admission quotas by Congress in 1965. According to the 2016 Current Population Survey (CPS), immigrants and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 84.3 million people, or 27 percent of the overall U.S. population (Zong & Batalova, 2017).
For several decades, scholars of immigrant adaptation have been interested in studying the U.S.-born children of immigrants, commonly referred to as second-generation immigrants. The scholarship on immigrant adaptation has defined the immigrant second-generation as native-born residents who have at least one foreign-born parent (Borjas, 1999; Portes and Rumbaut, 2001). As reported by the Migration Policy Institute, the number of second-generation immigrant children has grown steadily since 1990. Between 2000 and 2015, this population grew 52 percent (from 10.4 million to 15.8 million). Currently, one in four (25 percent) school-aged children is foreign-born or the child of foreign-born parents, a proportion that is higher than it has been in several generations (Zong & Batalova, 2017).
In discussions about children of immigrants, the aforementioned numbers and statistics are certainly important tools but there is another important ingredient in that stew: Experience. There is no room for that on those official census forms. They need to be complemented by real life stories and experiences of those defined and measured in these figures. Experience is a cover-all term for the various modes through which a person knows and constructs a reality. As Yi-Fu Tuan (2014) puts it, “Intimate experiences lie buried in our innermost being so that not only do we lack the words to give them form, but often we are not even aware of them” (p. 136). A human life begins at birth and ends in death: it’s a one-way journey. Human time is biased in favor of the future. That latter word is key to why the parents of these children made the choice of moving to another country. Those individuals are more than numbers, more than the reports that analyze their educational attainment and economic standing, and this is why this project will attempt to put a face to second-generation Americans in one small portion of the U.S.: Morgantown city in the state of West Virginia.
The Appalachian region (covering all of West Virginia, parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) has long been considered a predominantly white section of the United States, particularly in comparison with the rest of the country (Pollard, 2004). A map created by Randy Olson can help us understand where West Virginia particularly stands nationally in terms of diversity (Narula, 2014). His visualization map shows racial diversity across the United States’ nearly 3,000 counties. Like the nation’s population, the results were mixed. Vermont was found to be the least diverse state in the nation, while the least diverse county, according to Olson’s calculations, was Tucker county in West Virginia with 100 percent white population.
However, this broad generalization fails to take into account the immense diversity and subcultures of some of the most seemingly homogenous places, particularly those in rural America. Fortunately, a growing body of literature on the topic of race and ethnicity in the region is developing. Since 1990, Appalachia has become more diverse as racial and ethnic minorities have constituted nearly half the region’s population growth through 2000 (Pollard, 2004). Diversity exists here—whether socioeconomic, religious, cultural, racial, or in national heritage.
West Virginia is home to a rich diversity of cultures and communities, representing people from all around the world who have found their way to this Appalachian state. According to the 2017 State Physician Workforce Data report, one in three of the active physicians in West Virginia is a foreign medical school graduate (Association of American Medical Colleges, 2017). The state has also witnessed a rise in foreign-cuisine restaurants in places like Morgantown, third largest city in West Virginia, ranking in the upper quartile for population density and diversity index when compared to the other cities, towns and census designated places in West Virginia (Data USA, n.d.). Many Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese restaurants have seen success and are still in business due to the many international students.
To varying degrees, many of these communities have assimilated into mainstream America, but most of them have also found ways to retain their cultural identity and heritage, including folk art, music and dance, food, religious customs, and family traditions. The presence of these communities and their willingness to share their traditions is a valuable asset to cultural life in West Virginia and a testament to the fact that there is not one story or voice of West Virginia.
References:
Association of American Medical Colleges. (2017). 2017 State Physician Workforce Data Book. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/download/447244/data/westvirginiaprofile.pdf
Borjas, G. J. (1999). Heavens Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Princeton University Press.Bush, J., McLarty III, T. F., and Alden, E. H. 2009. U.S. immigration policy, Council on Foreign Relations: New York.
Data USA. (n.d.). Data USA: Morgantown City. Retrieved from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/morgantown-wv/#demographics
Gibson, C., & Jung, K. (2005). Historical census statistics on population totals by race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic origin, 1970 to 1990, for large cities and other urban places in the United States. Population Division Working Paper No. 76. U.S. Census Bureau.
Krogstad, J. (2015). What Americans, Europeans think of immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/24/what-americans-europeans-think-of-immigrants/
Migration Policy Institute. (2017). West Virginia: Demographics & Social. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/state-profiles/state/demographics/WV
Narula, S. (2014, April 29). The 5 U.S. Counties Where Racial Diversity Is Highest—and Lowest. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/mapping-racial-diversity-by-county/361388/
Pollard, Kelvin M. 2004. A “New Diversity”: Race and Ethnicity in the Appalachian Region. Washington, DC: Appalachian Regional Commission and Population Reference Bureau.Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (n.d.). Legacies: the story of the immigrant second-generation. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Tuan, Y. (2014). Space and place: the perspective of experience. Minnesota: University of Minnesota.
Zong, J & Batalova, J. (2017, March 8). Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states
Zong, J & Batalova, J. (2016, August 10). Naturalization Trends in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/naturalization-trends-united-states