Why Mexico is the new Germany, in 1 map

[TexasTowelie]

One hundred years ago, almost one in every five immigrants in the United States hailed from Germany — by far the largest of any immigrant group. Today, roughly three in every 10 immigrants hail from Mexico. This is not your grandparents' United States.

That reality is driven home by this amazing GIF, built by Jens Manuel Krogstad and Michael Keegan of the Pew Research Center, that shows the states in which Germany and Mexico provided the majority of immigrants from 1850 to 2010.



As the duo write: "Today, five times as many immigrants in the U.S. are from Mexico than China, the country with the second-highest number of immigrants (5% of all immigrants in the U.S., or 2.2 million). Mexico is the birthplace of 29% (or 11.7 million) of all immigrants in the United States. Immigrants born in Mexico account for more than half of all of the foreign born in four states: New Mexico (72.4%), Arizona (60.2%), Texas (59.7%) and Idaho (53.5%)."

GIFS not your thing? Krogstad and Keegan built maps of the largest immigrant communities in each state in 1910 and 2010.



More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/05/28/why-mexico-is-the-new-germany-in-1-map/?tid=pm_politics_pop .

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Interesting stuff. Thanks.

[TexasTowelie]

2. You're welcome.

It was really interesting learning about some of the less prominent immigrant groups in the Northeast and Alaska.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Before World War I, many cities had bilingual education---in German

There were German newspapers and magazines, German cultural organizations, churches with services in German, German bookstores, and entire neighborhoods and towns where everyone spoke German. If there had been radio and TV in those days, they probably would have had that, too.

My great-grandparents came to this country in 1899. They a few years later, they sent for my great-grandmother's parents and youngest brother (age 14). The two old folks lived into the 1930s and never learned to speak English. My great-great grandfather, who had been a civil engineer in Germany, even did some consulting for the city of Minneapolis without speaking a word of English.
My great-grandfather died when I was 13 and my great-grandmother when I was 20. They never learned to speak English well and ended up speaking a hybrid of German and English. They tried to raise my grandmother and her siblings in German, and they succeeded, but once the children were out of the house, they spoke English, even to other children of German immigrants.

Until my great-grandparents died, family gatherings were always bilingual, so I could understand German long before I ever tried speaking it. However, except for my great-aunt, who married a German immigrant, my grandmother and her siblings were English-dominant, as was my mother, although she learned German from being babysat by her grandparents and great-grandparents and later studied it in school.

When people fret about immigrants who "refuse to learn English," they don't realize that this pattern has occurred many times before. If you've ever lived in a place with a lot of Latino immigrants (e.g. rural Oregon), you'll know that the first generation sometimes never learns English well. Their children speak both languages, and if they were young enough when they came here, their English may be stronger than their Spanish. The third generation is usually English-dominant and may not even speak Spanish, especially if one of their parents is non-Latino. Every year, the college where I taught had students with Hispanic names who could legitimately take Beginning Spanish.

[TexasTowelie]

5. I'm also of German descent,

I'm about 3/8 ths German based upon what I know from my mother's family history. My great-great grandparents on my maternal grandparents side were German while my maternal grandfather was a mix of German and Dutch. The paternal lineage may have some German, but I believe that it was mostly English and Scotch-Irish. All of my relatives were fluent in English though since my ancestors arrived in the 1850-1900 period. My mom's family were also Lutherans.

There are several areas in Texas where the German tradition remains fairly strong such as the Hill Country and the area around Brenham where I lived for most of 2012 and 2013. If you leave the Brenham area and go driving on the back country roads there are small Lutheran churches about every four to five miles. In San Antonio, the King William neighborhood also has many old homes constructed by the Germans that are quite beautiful and it is one of the more desirable neighborhoods near the downtown area.

My knowledge of German is somewhat limited, I read some chemistry abstracts written in German and my brother was stationed in West Germany while in the Army when the Berlin Wall fell. I would like to travel to Germany if I ever travel to Europe, but I doubt that is going to happen in my lifetime. Unfortunately, the aunt who was most interested in genealogy passed away about ten years ago. I believe that I still have one of the newsletters that she wrote packed away in my possessions so I would most likely have to go to the state library in Austin to do any research.

This was an interesting article though so I am happy to share it.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Multiculturalism abounds in NC. Cool post! eom

[TexasTowelie]

6. I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

It's interesting to learn about past and current immigration trends.

[fujiyama]

7. Would anyone have guessed WV's largest foreign born immigrant group would be Indian?

Then again, there is a very cool Krishna temple in WV out in the hills.

[DemocraticWing]

8. There are areas of Louisville that still have a strong German heritage.

My great-grandmother was the last family member who grew up speaking German. Her family, and many other families of German heritage, were still very steeped in their culture in the late 1800s/early 1900s. I suspect the great-grandchildren of current Spanish-speaking Americans will probably just blend in like my family did.

[Jamaal510]

9. I'm not really surprised

by the number of Mexican immigrants here, given our proximity to Mexico compared to other countries. Though, I am surprised that Mexicans outnumber other immigrants even in some states that are nowhere near the U.S.-Mexico border, such as MN and OH.

[loyalsister]

10. Now that you mention proximity

I wonder what took so long?

[davidpdx]

11. This is interesting

I have a friend who recently migrated to the US from The Philippines and lives in Texas now. A bit of a culture shock given Filipinos are collectivist and feminine and the US is individualistic and more masculine (especially Texas).

There is quite a bit of migration going on here in Korea as the population of foreigners has increased from 100,000 in 1995 to about 1.5 million in 2013 with an estimated 2.5 in 2020 and 4 million by 2050. Of course that's on a much smaller scale than in the US, but also the population and area are much smaller as well.

It would be interesting in 2050 if the same thing was done here in Korea showing the countries people immigrated from starting in 95' by province.

[Cal33]

12. We seem to avoid the memory that CA, AZ, NM and TX were parts of Mexico, and that during the war

between our two countries in the 1840s, there were many Mexicans who had to escape with their lives
by fleeing south to escape the fighting. I can imagine that those Mexicans today who have ancestors
who had been born in these now (4 United States) still harbor some feelings that that is where they
came from, and that that is their home. Those descendants who have returned to these states might
not look upon themselves as immigrants or foreigners. They might feel that they are returning to the
home from which they had been displaced.

[pampango]

13. And the nativists (Know Nothings among others) of that era hated German immigrants.

The Know Nothing movement was an American political movement that operated on a national basis during the mid-1850s. It promised to purify American politics by limiting or ending the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants, thus reflecting nativism and anti-Catholic sentiment. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, whom they saw as hostile to republican values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, but met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant males.

Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries. - Tea partiers don't want immigration from anywhere - particularly 'brown' countries.
Restricting political office to native-born Americans of English and/or Scottish lineage and Protestant persuasion. - They would prefer restricting it to native-born, white males, but probably figure they can't get away with that - yet.
Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship. - A permanent class of non-citizens, non-voters would suit them just fine.
Restricting public school teacher positions to Protestants. - Surprised that tea partiers haven't thought of this one. Injecting religion into public schools is one of their things.
Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools. - Sounds good to your average republican.
Restricting the sale of liquor. - Here's the one Know Nothing policy that would cause a MAJOR problem with our far-right.
Restricting the use of languages other than English. - The republican base already supports this idea. No change needed here. They may be surprised that other nativists thought of it first.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing