Monday,
October 16, 2006
US to hit 300 Million Population
Tues, Oct. 17- Immigrantion, Then and Now.
The
ANNOTICO Report
If
we start at 1776, it took 139 years for the
Immigrants
accounted for 15 percent of Americans in 1915, when the nation's population hit
the 100 million mark, and rising anti-immigration sentiment led Congress to
adopt immigration controls in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 70s the controls were
eased.
Today,
Immigration is an again an issue,
First,
because it is driving about half the country's population growth,
Secondly , the largest single immigrant group is from
Thirdly,
a majority are ILLEGAL, and in many cases are receiving benefits
This has produced a
new wave of anti-immigration sentiment.
But today's
fights over immigrants, even those here illegally, don't compare with the
intense fear and hatred at the dawn of the 20th century, AND the Fact that then
there were No Unions, No Work Protections, No Social Security
, No Social Benefits, practically No Nothing.
As a small
example as to how Italians were viewed at that time: "Look at Columbus Day
in 1900, when the first really big parade was organized in New York,Two days prior, the state Assembly passed a bill
prohibiting hiring alien Italians for state contracts. The New York Times
quoted a socialite saying she was employing Italians in her gardens, but she'd
now fire them as her patriotic duty.
"For the
march, 30,000 Italians and Italian Americans congregated ... and two blocks
later they were greeted with a shower of bricks from Irish workers on a local construction site. Cops broke up the march with billy clubs."
San
Francisco Chronicle
Ilene
Lelchuk
Staff
Writer
Sunday,
October 15, 2006
The 300 millionth
American is expected to arrive this week, but in a break with tradition, that
landmark resident won't necessarily be a newborn.
She or he may be
an adult immigrant.
All the U.S.
Census Bureau knows for sure is that a baby is born somewhere in the country
every 7 seconds, a new immigrant arrives every 31 seconds on average and
someone dies every 13 seconds, for a net average gain of one resident every 11
seconds.
Based on those
averages, the Census Bureau projects that we'll hit 300 million at 10:46 a.m.
Pacific time Tuesday. The bureau's population clock,
ticking away in cyberspace at www.census.gov,
put the
A lot has changed
since 1967, the year that
Immigrant
growth
Put another way,
immigrants and their children and grandchildren have accounted for more than
half of the population increase in the
"We are
returning to our melting pot roots," said William Frey, a demographer for
the Brookings Institution.
Immigrants
accounted for 15 percent of Americans in 1915, when the nation's population hit
the 100 million mark. The largest group was Germans, and rising anti-immigration
sentiment led Congress to adopt immigration controls in the 1920s and 1930s.
These days, there
is a new wave of anti-immigration sentiment. With newcomers of color spilling
into
But today's
fights over immigrants, especially those here illegally, don't compare with the
intense fear and hatred at the dawn of the 20th century, said Mike Hout, a sociology professor at UC Berkeley.
"Look at
Columbus Day in 1900, when the first really big parade was organized in
"For the
march, 30,000 Italians and Italian Americans congregated ... and two blocks
later they were greeted with a shower of bricks from Irish workers on a local
construction site protesting Italians taking their jobs. Cops broke up the
march with billy clubs."
A century later,
Across the
country, as well as in
Overpopulation
fears
Immigration is an
issue, first because it is driving about half the country's population growth,
but this week's milestone also rings alarms for people concerned about climate
change, rising energy consumption, farmland disappearing to development and the
sheer amount of trash 300 million people will generate.
The news in 1967
that the country's population had hit 200 million spurred Stanford biology Professor
Paul Ehrlich, author of the "Population Bomb" in 1968, to found the
group Zero Population Growth with a
"People come
to this country because they want the American dream. The question is what can
we do to make the Mexican dream better or the Guatemalan dream ... so the decision
people make about where they live is not made by poverty or terror," said
John Seager, Population Connection president.
Ehrlich, whose
book foretold mass famine and economic catastrophe for the last fourth of the
20th century, says the nation's optimal population is about 100 million. And he
says his sad predictions were too optimistic, though many didn't come true.
He knew in 1968
about possible global warming or cooling, but not which way the environment was
headed. He also didn't know about ozone depletion or how fast tropical forests
and species were disappearing. And, he said, he knew that population growth
increased the chance that diseases might transfer from animals to humans, but
he hadn't imagined AIDS or avian flu.
"All these
things are tied in together with population, but people still don't pay
attention," Ehrlich said.
Someone must have
listened. The average American household is at an all-time low of 2.6 people,
compared with 3.3 in 1967 and 4.5 in 1915.
Though its
population ranks third behind
"
Changes
over the years
What the
approaching population landmark means depends most of all on your perspective.
Bay Area residents born during the other milestone eras waxed nostalgic about
simpler times without
In 1915, new
homes cost $3,200, a Model T was $550, processed cheese first hit the market,
and
"The biggest
change during my life has been the worship of money," said Harold Furst of
Furst lost both his parents to
the influenza epidemic when he was a year old. When he was 11, the family and
friends who had cared for him left him on his own in the
Furst also put himself through
UC Berkeley, which cost about $200 a year at the time, and he bought his first
house for $4,000, in
The only way Andy
Graham, born in 1967, could afford a house in the Bay Area was to partner with
a stranger and create a tenancy-in-common. He paid $230,000 in 2000 for his
1,100-square-foot portion of the property he shares in
The year he was
born, the median price of a new house was $24,600, gas cost 33 cents a gallon,
the first heart transplant was performed, and the first Super Bowl was played.
Members of
Graham's generation, many now raising children of their own, remarked that
childhood today is crammed much tighter with pressures and, well, stuff.
"Kids have
always been marketed to, but now it's so blatant. I see it with girls and
fashion and boys with video games," said Graham, whose girlfriend has
three teenagers. "It seems like everything moves so much faster. Like in
schools, the standardized testing is pushing them a lot harder. I feel like I
breezed through school."
Today's
world
Babies and
immigrants arriving this fall will live in a country where the median-price
American home costs $290,600, gas is $2.25 a gallon, and a $115 billion company
called Google gobbled another Internet business for $1.65 billion.
Expectant
"There are
so many things that you feel you have to do and have," Alicia Griffith
said.
Friends are
advising her to apply to preschool while the child is still in utero, then get into the best
private elementary school and sign up for language-immersion classes.
"It's a
different world," she said, specifically mentioning the Oct. 2 shooting of
10 schoolgirls in rural
Naomi Mahoney,
also due to give birth this week, is concerned about the environment.
"Will
Both moms,
though, said they try not to worry all the time. Their children will be 37 when
"We've
decided to live one day at a time,"
A
new milestone for
The
number of residents has tripled since 1915 - and much has changed.
1915:
100,000,000
1967:
200,000,000
2006:
300,000,000
1915
President:
Woodrow Wilson
Price
of a new home: $3,200
Cost
of a gallon of regular gas: 25"
Cost
of a first-class stamp: 2"
Average
household size: 4.5 people
Number
of people age 65 and older: 4.5 milllion
Most
popular baby names for boys and girls: John and Mary
1967
President:
Lyndon B. Johnson
Price
of a new home: $24,600
Cost
of a gallon of regular gas: 33"
Cost
of a first-class stamp: 5"
Average
household size: 3.3 people
Number
of people age 65 and older: 19.1 million
Most
popular baby names for boys and girls: Michael and Lisa
2006
President: George
W. Bush
Price of a new
home: $290,600
Cost of a gallon
of regular gas: $2.25
Cost of a
first-class stamp: 39"
Average household
size: 2.6 people
Number of people
age 65 and older: 36.8 million
Most popular baby
names for boys and girls: Jacob and Emily
Bay
Area population, 1900 - 2000
Population
in millions
1900:
658,111
1990:
6,827,309
2000:
6,622,736
Combined
population of the nine Bay Area counties:
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo,
Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.
Source:
The Chronicle
E-mail Ilene Lelchuk at ilelchuk@sfchronicle.com.
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