. "2 Background to Contemporary U.S. Immigration." The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1997.
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TABLE 2.8 Household and Family Type of Immigrants Who Arrived 1980-1990 and of U.S. Population, 1990 (percentage of all households)
Type of Household
1980-1990 Immigrants
United States Total
Nonfamily households
21.0
29.8
Family households, total
79.0
70.2
With own children under 18
52.1
33.6
With own children under 6
19.6
15.5
Type of family
Married-couple families
59.2
55.1
With own children under 18
41.7
25.6
With own children under 6
16.1
12.4
Family with female householder, no husband present, total
10.8
11.6
With own children under 18
7.2
6.6
With own children under 6
2.0
2.6
Family with male householder, no wife present
9.0
3.4
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census (1993:Foreign-Born Population of United States, Table 2; General Population Characteristics, Table 36).
TABLE 2.9 Children Ever Born to Female Immigrants Who Arrived in 1980-1990 and U.S. Women, by Age of Mother (children born per 1,000 women)
Age of Mother
1980-1990 Immigrants
All U.S. Women
15-24
404
305
25-34
1,361
1,330
35-44
2,200
1,960
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census (1993:Foreign Born Population of the United States, Table 1; Social and Economic Characteristics of the Population, Table 16).
Geography
Immigrants have always moved to relatively few places, settling where they have family or friends, or where there are people from their ancestral country or community—in short, with people with similar backgrounds and nationalities. This phenomenon, observed in earlier waves of immigrants, characterizes the first decades after arrival in the United States; thereafter, their children may dis-
