Central & South America

For more than a century, Central and South Americans have continuously immigrated to the United States. Their countries of origin include: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uraguay and Venezuela. These countries vary greatly in size, geography, history, language, levels of urbanization and industrialization and number of immigrants who have resettled in the United States. Immigrants from these countries have been incorporated into the social fabric of the United States in different ways; the US government has welcomed some groups more than others.

Central and South American immigrants are a very diverse group; the population includes people from different socioeconomic, ethnocultural and geographic backgrounds. Although the majority of Central and South Americans speak Spanish, the population also includes indigenous Indians who speak languages such as Quiche or Kanjobal, and coastal Central Americans who speak English. Racially and ethnically, Central and South Americans are the descendants of indigenous Indian, African and European people; the population also includes people of Asian descent. Although the majority of South and Central Americans are Roman Catholic, the group also includes many Protestants and a smaller number of Jews and people from other religions. Economic and sociopolitical instabilities are the most important determinant factors for South and Central Americans to come to the United States. Overall, their relocation in the United States is the direct result of economic and political stresses in their home countries. According to the U.S. Census, in 1990, there were 2,359,432 Central and South Americans living in the United States. It is important to note, that the Census figures appear to be a low reflection of the actual Central and South American populations due to an undercount of undocumented persons.

Immigrants from South America have been coming to the United States since the 1800s. Over the past almost 200 years, over 1.4 million South Americans have legally entered and resettled in the United States and a smaller unknown number have entered the country without documents. South Americans have been motivated to immigrate to the United States for both socioeconomic and political reasons. In the 1800s, Chilean, Peruvian and other South American men were drawn to the United States for economic reasons. Their extensive experience in the mining industry in their home countries caused them to be in high demand during the gold mining period in states like California. Throughout the 1900s South Americans continued to immigrate to the United States. From 1910 to 1930, over 4,000 South Americans entered the United States annually. During the second World War, labor demands contributed to increased immigration from South America. As a consequence of these early migrations, there are many second, third and fourth generation South Americans in the United States. However, the overwhelmingly majority of South American immigrants entered the United States after 1960 and a large part of the population, about 45 percent, arrived after 1980.

According to the Census, 87,705 South Americans were living in the United States prior to 1965. During the 1960s many new South American immigrants entered and resettled in the United States as a consequence of new policies related to the Immigration Act of 1965 which created immigrant quotas to countries that historically had not been included in US immigration policies. The 1965 law encouraged professionals and skilled laborers to migrate to the United States and permitted the resettlement of numerous young working-class and middle-class South American families. By this time, many U.S. urban centers had well-established Latin American immigrant communities that attracted South Americans to their neighborhoods. Between 1965 and 1979, about 291,491 South Americans entered the United States. Between 1980 and 1990, almost 400,000 South Americans entered the United States; these immigrations were primarily composed of Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Argentineans, Venezuelans and Chileans. Among these groups, the greatest number of legal South American immigrants in the United States immigrated from Colombia. In 1994, Colombia ranked as the nineteenth largest sending nation. During this 30 year period, a smaller number of South Americans entered the United States without immigrant documents. According to the Census, 1,035,602 South Americans resided in the U.S. in 1990. These decades were characterized by political instability and the rise of military dictatorships in much of South America and although many South American immigrants who came to the United States were seeking economic opportunities, others were fleeing political persecution and turmoil in their countries of origin. For example, it was during this period that thousands of Chileans fled their country from the severe military repression of the Pinochet government. As they sought refuge abroad, many selected to resettle in the United States.

Central Americans have been resettling in the United States since the 1800s. Between 1820 and 1993, over one million immigrants from Central America legally resettled in the United States. More than half of the Central American immigrant population settled in the United States after 1980. The post 1980 immigrant wave also included a very large number of undocumented persons.

The first wave of Central American immigration to the United States can be traced to the mid-1800's when coffee was introduced as a cash crop in Central America and a thriving export trade developed in the West coast with San Francisco as the chief processing center. Once these links were established, social networks led to migratory movements back and forth, at first limited to the Central American elite but gradually many Central Americans, both male and female, were recruited to work in coffee factories and other food industries in the United States.

The second wave of Central American immigration to the United States occurred during the 1930's and 1940's. During this period, Central American immigrants established communities in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and New Orleans. This cohort of Central American immigrants was composed of men and women from the urban middle classes who had relatively high levels of education-- intellectuals, teachers, labor organizers, political dissidents, exiled military officers who were not in agreement with their national governments. There were also individuals that had direct ties to their governments and/or who were members of the dominant social class in their countries. Their immigration was motivated by their desire to escape failing economies, political persecution and lack of personal freedom.

Unlike subsequent waves

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