Q4 The ethnic groups of people in United States of America (USA) are 79.96% white, 12.85% black, 4.43% Asian, 0.97% Amerindian and Alaska, 0.18% native Hawaiian and other Pacific island and about 15.1% of the total US population is Hispanic. There is an inequalities in US between the immigrant and the American-born natives. In 2000, the average immigrant earned about 20 percent less than their American-born counterpart. In 1940, a typical immigrant earned nearly 6 percent more. The second generation earned 6.3 percent more than American-born workers in 2000, compared to nearly 15 percent more in 1970 and almost 18 percent more in 1940.
Wealth is heavily concentrated in the top 1 percent of the U.S. population. 1. “The wealthiest 1 percent of the American population holds 34 percent of the total national wealth…Sixty percent of the American population holds less that 6 percent of the nation’s wealth” (Mantsios). 2. According to Forbes, there are 403 billionaires in the U.S., as of March 2010. b.
The decline of workers contributing to Social Security means there will be less benefits that will be replaced. Currently the Baby boomers have the highest labor force participation of any generations in American history. (Crain, 2006) The generations following the Baby Boomer generation will not have the numbers to replace the Baby Boomers place in the workforce. According to Crain (2006) nearly 90% of the Baby Boomer generation works, which is over half of the entire workforce in the nation. About 80% of female Baby Boomers worked which was also a contribution to the two income family.
Assimilation There are many people around the world who want to change their lives and make it better. Some of them leave their homes, their friends, their countries and come to the United States to find a better life here. For some newcomers the only way they can survive is living in their national communities, neighborhoods, but others try to assimilate to American people. Assimilation implies that people should forget their background to become a part of a new society. Although many people think that all immigrants should go through assimilation, however I believe that people can become a part of other culture without erasing their own background, because of several reasons.
It could be argued that minorities have achieved equality since there are increasing graduation rates amongst all ethnic groups between 2001 and 2008. For example, black graduation increased from 78% to 80%, Hispanic increased from 57% to 60%. Asians remained at a constant 85%. Despite this, whites still have a higher graduation rate than blacks and Hispanics at 84%. In addition to this, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be unemployed than whites and Asians.
Latinos currently compromise 13% of the nation's population and are projected to grow to 56 million by 2010 and reach 70 million by 2020. (Source: United States Census
These ethnic groups can be considered minorities. Whereas the percentage of Native Americans has increased slightly, the number of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander has halved. The two lowest lines in the table show an overall view of the population only dividing Native American in Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanics or Latino. Whereas the percentage of Hispanics has been 38% in 1990, by 2010 the percentage has risen to 49%. It can be roughly said that half the population in Los Angeles County consist of
The answers to these questions are not easy to determine, but data from the 2000 census indicates that of the 8.7 million immigrants aged 18 to 59 in the 1990’s, 5.6 million were in the United States labor force in the year 2000. Recent immigrants accounted for 41 percent of labor force growth in the 1990’s compared to only 11 percent in the
The unemployment rate in Mexico is more than 40% although some have jobs, but are paid an average wage of $3.49 per hour and 18% live on just less than 60p per day. In 2000, unemployment rates in Mexico were at 2.2, however, in 2009, they rose by 34.43%. The GDP per person in Mexico is $9,741.79 which is below the average salary in the U.S. This attracts many people to the U.S who believe they can get much better jobs and live the American dream. 47% of the population lives under the poverty line which makes many people try and move to U.S.A to have better prospects.
Hispanic American Diversity In the United States more than one in eight people are of Spanish or Latin American origin (Schaefer 2006). The Hispanic population was the largest ethnic or race group averaging at 14.5 million people as of July 1, 2007 according to the infoplease web site (2007). The Hispanic population makes up 15% of the nation’s population. According to the Census Bureau, by 2050 the Hispanic population will grow to 132.8 million people (infoplease 2007). We think of the Hispanic or Latino population as the same, but they are actually very diverse.