'A True Nation of the World'

By Harold L. Hodgkinson

The author is the director of the Center for Demographic Policy at the Institute for Education Leadership in Washington, D.C.

I mmigrant education has become a flashpoint for discussion across the country. Lost among the impassioned rhetoric, however, is accurate information on the number of immigrants and their impact on the United States. I hope to cast some light on the debate by providing facts and numbers on immigration--and what it means for the United States to become a 'minority majority.'

We are currently in the middle of the second large immigration wave of this century. One major difference, though, is the countries of origin in the first wave, from 1901-10, (Germany, Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R., Canada, and Sweden, in order by citizens arriving in the United States) and the current wave (Mexico, Philippines, Korea, China/Taiwan, India, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Canada, Vietnam,...