Population and Immigration
Chapter 14
The World’s Population
• Population growth rate prior to 1650 was two-thousandths
of a percent per year
• In 1650 the world’s population was around 500 million
• By 1900 the growth rate was half of 1 percent with the
world’s population at around 1 billion
• By 1940 the growth rate rose to one percent
• Today the world’s population is about 6,602,000,000
• If the world’s population continues to grow at the present
rate, it will double in a mere 45 years, thus creating major
problems of migration, environmental pressure, and
resource management
Measures of Population Growth
• One measure of population growth is the crude
birthrate - the number of births per 1,000
population
• The difference between the crude birthrate and the
death rate is referred to as the rate of population
growth (natural increase)
• As a whole, the world is not reproducing at a
higher rate, but people are living longer
Measures of Population Growth
• Most nations have a population growth rate of .1 percent to
3.0 percent
• Industrial nations are at the low end with developing
nations at the high end of the growth rate
» In the near future, the population of less
developed nations is likely to double
• Russia and many other European nations have been
experiencing extremely slow or even negative rates of
natural population increase
The Demographic Transition
• Demographic transition is the process by which
populations change through patterns of high-low
birth rates and high-low death rates
• The first stage of demographic transition is when
births and deaths cancel each other out and growth
is slow
» First stage is associated with poor
sanitation, disease, primitive farming,
and lack of medical knowledge
The Demographic Transition
• The second stage is associated with rising birth
rates and declining death rates
• Rapid growth
» Improvements in sanitation
» Nutrition
» Medicine
» Occurred first in Northwest Europe
» Second stage is found in most
developing nations today
The Demographic Transition
• The third stage is associated with low birth rates
and low death rates
• This third stage is found today in most developed
nations
Rising Expectations
• Rising expectations is the belief that one’s
immediate environment is capable of providing
benefits – that conditions are improving
• Improvements in living conditions in developing
countries has led to rising expectations
• Rising expectations is related in part to the
relationship between the standard of living in a
country – what people want or expect in the way
of material well being and the level of living – and
what one actually obtains
Rising Expectations
• In part, rising expectations have been a function of
the growth of literacy in developing nations
• The gap in living standards between the haves and
have not is a social problem:
» Political instability
» Backwardness
» Neocolonialism
» Terrorism
» Population migration of the poor
Food and Hunger
• Three-quarters of a billion people are hungry in a world
where there is plenty to eat
• Children account for 75 percent of hunger-related deaths
• Hunger is a paradox in that there is an abundance of low
cost food, but the poor lack the income to purchase food
and to have access to food
• Poverty and politics are, by far, the primary causes of
hunger in the world
• One of the paradoxes of world hunger is that food supplies
have been increasing over the past twenty years while the
cost of food has been decreasing
Population Control
• Population control usually takes three approaches
• 1. Reduce the birthrate of a population
• 2. Control fertility to achieve zero rate of
population growth
• 3. Achieve a negative rate of growth reducing the
size of the population
Family Planning
• Family planning involves the voluntary control of
the number of children born
» Margaret Sanger opened the first birth
control clinic in 1916
• Education
• Contraceptive use to control family size
Zero Population Growth (ZPG)
• Zero Population Growth is an organization that
advocates no population growth as soon as
possible, through measures like:
» Birth control
» Legalized abortion
» Education and changing attitudes on
family
Population Control in LDCs
• Sterilization – encouraged volunteers through
financial incentives
• China and one child per family policy
• Family planning and birth control, along with
educational programs
The U.S. Population
• The United States’ population is growing at a rate
of about 1 percent a year
• Sixty percent is due to natural growth - births over
deaths
• Forty percent is due to net migration
• Migration to sunbelt areas of the country has been
a significant change in the U.S.
• Age and income disparity of old and new
immigrants
Immigration and Its Consequences
• Many immigrants came to the United States for a
better way of life
» Freedom
» Jobs and economic opportunities
• Our diversity has been an important source of our
culture
Immigration and Its Consequences
• Immigration has also led to problems
» Ethnic and racial conflict
» Competition among nationalities for a
share of American pie
» Debates over immigration policy
» Illegal immigrants
» Costs of immigration
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
• The Early Colonial Period (to 1790)
• Immigrants from Great Britain accounted for 77
percent of the population
• African and native-born slaves accounted for 19
percent
• German 4 percent
• Irish 3 percent
• Dutch 2 percent
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
• Old Northwest European Migration, 1820-1885
• Majority of immigrants from this period were
from:
» Germany
» Ireland
» England
» China from 1840s to 1880s
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
• The Intermediate Migration from Southern
and Eastern Europe (1885-1940)
• Major immigrant groups during this period were
» Italians
» Poles
» Hungarians
» Serbians
» Croatians
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
•
•
•
•
•
Major immigrant groups during this period were
Greeks
Jews
Russians
Anti-immigrant movement and restrictionist
policies
» Immigration act of 1921
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
• The Post-World War II Refugee Period (to
1968)
• Political and religious refugees from post-World War II
countries
• The New Immigration (1968-Present)
• Immigration was geared to
» Family reunification
» Needs of U.S. economy
Immigration to the United States:
A Brief History
• Once Again a Nation of Immigrants
• In the past few years the United States has
been turning once again into a nation of
immigrants.
Recent Trends in Immigration
to the United States
• Most immigration, both documented and
undocumented, is from:
• Mexico and Central and South America
• Asian continent
Urban Concentration of Immigrants
• Majority of new immigrants have largely settled in
a few regions and cities
» New York
» Los Angeles
» Miami
» Chicago
• Mexicans in the Southwest
• Chain migration - referring to the tendency of
immigrants to settle in ethnic communities
Urban Concentration of Immigrants
• The concentration of immigrants often increase
the financial burdens on city services
• Nativist movement and inter-group competition
and conflict for jobs
Undocumented Immigrants
• Primary concentration of undocumented workers are in
Western and Southwestern states
• Smuggling and exploitation
• There are economic benefits and costs associated with
undocumented immigrants
• Modes of Entry to the United States
•
Nearly half of all undocumented immigrants arrive
legally as visitors to the U.S., but as much as 45 percent of
these people become overstayers
•
It is not clear exactly what effect illegal residents have
on the U.S. economy
Social Policy
• Terrorism and war have fueled a new antiimmigrant movement in the United States
• Policies will focus on the debate between the
benefits and costs that immigrants will bring to
American Society
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 making employers liable for hiring undocumented
immigrants
Social Policy
• Welfare reform initiates related to legal
immigrants and undocumented immigrants will
continue
• International population control initiates in
developing countries will take on renewed
significance
• Social-scientific evidence plays an important part
in the debates about immigration policies
• The policy of family reconciliation is highly
popular among immigrants and strongly opposed
by conservatives