2 U.S. Immigration Policy, Ethnicity, and Religion in American History 10 states, which collectively are home to 74 percent of all the foreign born. The top 10 states and their percentage of the total foreign born are California, 25.4 percent New York, 10.8 percent Texas, 10.4 percent Florida, 9.2 percent New Jersey, 4.6 percent Illinois, 4.4 percent Mas- sachusetts, 2.5 percent Georgia, 2.4 percent Virginia, 2.3 percent and Washington, 2.2 percent (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1975). The top four states in terms of the foreign born are also the top four states in terms of their total populations: California with 37.3 million, Texas with 25.3 million, New York with 19.4 million, and Florida with 18.8 mil- lion. Collectively, these four states represent 33 percent of the total U.S. population. The foreign born are also mostly recent arrivals: nearly two-thirds (62%) entered since 1990, and 35 percent entered since 2000. Among those coming from South America, 41 percent arrived since 2000, as did 39 percent of those coming from Central America. In terms of period of entry, 19.6 percent of the foreign born came before 1980, 18.6 percent came between 1980 and 1989, 27.2 percent came between 1990 and 1999, and 34.7 percent came since 2000. Despite the rhetoric decrying “anchor babies,” the census data show that they came to work. The per- centage of the population aged 16 years and older who are in the labor force is 64.4 percent when counting both sexes, but among the native Table 1.1 Foreign-Born Population by Region of Birth, U.S. Census, 2010 Region of Birth Population (in 000) Percentage (%) Total 39,958 100.0 Africa 1,607 4.0 Asia 11,284 28.2 Europe 4,817 12.1 Latin America/ Caribbean 21,224 53.1 Mexico 11,711 29.3 Central America 3,053 7.6 South America 2,730 6.8 Caribbean 3,731 9.3 North America 807 2.0 Oceania 217 0.5 Source: www.census.gov/acs/www/.
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