Who Are Americans? Who Are Americans? 1. As the American population has grown it has become more diverse. In the early years of the Republic, the majority of Americans were European settlers, mainly from northern Europe. One in five Americans was of African origin, the vast majority of whom had been brought to the United States against their will to work as slaves. There was also an unknown number of Indians, the original inhabitants of the land, who were not initially counted by the Census. 2. In the 1800s and early 1900s, a large wave of immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and later from Southern and Eastern Europe changed the demographic profile of the United States. As the population of foreign-born residents reached 14.7 percent in 1910, a movement to limit immigration gained ground. After World War I, Congress placed sharp limits on immigration. It also established the National Origins Quota System, designed to limit the numbers of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. 3. From the start, the American government used racial and ethnic criteria to draw boundaries around the American population. Until 1870, nonwhites could not become naturalized citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 outlawed the entry of Chinese laborers to the United States, a restriction that was not reversed until 1943. 4. In 1965, Congress opened the doors to immigrants once again. At the same time, it greatly expanded the number of immigrants who could come from Asia and Latin America. The American population has become much more diverse as a result. European Americans accounted for only two-thirds of the population in 2008. The African American population stood at 12.2 percent, and, reflecting the new immigration, Hispanics accounted for close to 15 percent, with Asian Americans at 4 percent of the American population. In 2005, 12 percent of the population was foreign-born. A small percentage of the population now identifies itself as of “two or more races.” The biracial category points toward a future in which the traditional labels of racial identification may be blurring.
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