CULTURE WARS ★^1087The Newest Immigrants
Because of shifts in immigration, cul-
tural and racial diversity have become
increasingly visible in the United
States. Until the immigration law of
1965, the vast majority of twentieth-
century newcomers hailed from
Europe. That measure, as noted in
Chapter 25, sparked a wholesale shift
in immigrants’ origins. Between 1965
and 2010, nearly 38 million immi-
grants entered the United States, a
number larger than the 27 million
during the peak period of immigra-
tion between 1880 and 1924. About
50 percent came from Latin America
and the Caribbean, 35 percent from
Asia, and smaller numbers from the
Middle East and Africa. Only 10 per-
cent arrived from Europe, mostly from the war- torn Balkans and the former
Soviet Union.
In 2010, the number of foreign- born persons living in the United States
stood at more than 40 million, or 13 percent of the population. Although less
than the peak proportion of 14 percent in 1910, in absolute numbers this repre-
sented the largest immigrant total in the nation’s history. The immigrant influx
changed the country’s religious and racial map. By 2010, more than 4 million
Muslims resided in the United States, and the combined population of Bud-
dhists and Hindus exceeded 1 million.
As in the past, many immigrants became urban residents, with New York
City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami the most common destinations. New eth-
nic communities emerged, with homes, shops, restaurants, foreign- language
newspapers, radio and television stations, and ethnic professionals like busi-
nessmen and lawyers. Unlike in the past, rather than being concentrated in one
or two parts of city centers, immigrants quickly moved into outlying neigh-
borhoods and older suburbs. The immigrant influx revitalized neighborhoods
like New York City’s Washington Heights (a Dominican enclave) and Flush-
ing (a center for Asian newcomers). By the turn of the century, more than half
of all Latinos lived in suburbs. Orange County, California, which had been a
stronghold of suburban conservatism between 1960 and 1990, elected a Latina
Democrat to Congress in the late 1990s. While most immigrants settled on the
East and West Coasts, some moved to other parts of the country. They brought
Erected on U.S. 5, an interstate highway running
from the Mexican to Canadian borders along the
Pacific Coast, this sign warns motorists to be
on the lookout for people (i.e., undocumented
immigrant families) crossing the road on foot. The
sign’s placement north of San Diego, about thirty
miles north of Mexico, illustrates how the “bor-
der” had become an entire region, not simply a
geographical boundary.What cultural conflicts emerged in the 1990s?