Mapping Migration in the United States

Mapping Migration in the United States

The least transient state is Louisiana, where 79% of the residents were also born. The most transient is Nevada, where only 25% of the residents were actually born, followed by Florida at 36%

Things have changed since 1950, when California was second to Nevada in the percentage of transients. More and more of those who migrated to California had children who stayed put.

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Which states have the most foreign-born residents?

California has 28%, New York 25%, Florida 23%. I think those would be three separate and distinct groups: Californians from Mexico, Floridians from Cuba and South America, New Yorkers from Puerto Rico and probably every other country you can think of.

No state had more than 20% foreign-born residents in 1950, but many were above 20% in 1900, although Florida was not in the pack, or even close to it. The country was flooded with immigrants in those days, and many of them moved west for the seemingly limitless opportunities available to hard workers. For example 29% of the residents of Minnesota were foreign-born in 1900, and 36% of North Dakotans, yet the numbers for those states have shrunk to insignificance now. North Dakota has dropped from 36% to 5%!

(I'll bet the foreign-born numbers would be even higher for 1920 after so many Europeans, including my own grandfathers, fled that continent's endless wars.)

The point of all this, a point that I never considered before, is that the America of today - with its substantial immigrant population - while not resembling the America that existed when I was born and grew up, very much resembles the America that existed in 1900, the young America that grew up with enough muscle to become the big shoulders in the body of humanity. So you grandparents who fear the unfamiliar hordes of foreigners in our land, take note - that condition would not have felt at all unfamiliar to your own grandparents, and things turned out fine. Damned fine.