Changing Demographics of the US: White American in Minority ??
United States, with an estimated population of 420 million by 2050 is growing older. The percentage of 65+ is expected to reach about 20 percent by 2050 which is 13 percent currently. America’s relatively high fertility rate hit 2.1 in 2006, with 4.3 million total births, the highest levels in 45 years. Also, the young age portion consisting of 15 to 64 age group is expected to grow 42 percent by the same time. The prospect of an additional 100 million Americans by 2050 worries some environmentalists. This is “Graying of America”. But the most important demographic change is the increase of non-white Americans recently. The United States of 2050 will look different from that of today majorly due to one reason, i.e. whites will no longer be in the majority. The U.S. minority population, currently 30 percent, is expected to exceed 50 percent before 2050. And this seems to a serious threat to White Supremacy. Native White Americans, whose population will be shrinking 2020 onwards, mainly due to a decrease in fertility rate see this problem as a threat to their identity in their own country. The overall population of the US will be increasing due to more babies of Hispanic, Black and Asian races. And the major contribution to the growth of these communities is due to immigration.
The United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the U.S. population. More than half of those will come to the United States are educated and skilled and this also makes the US, the world’s preferred destination for educated, skilled migrants. In 2000 the United States was home to 12.5 million skilled immigrants, equaling the combined total for Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Japan. The United Nations estimates that more than 2 million people every year will move from poorer to developed nations over the next 40 years. And this further increases the chance of the USA getting more immigrants. That’s the reason why many white Americans have joined traditionally conservative sectarian and anti-immigration movements to influence the policymakers to stop or limit the number of immigrants.
Increase in non-white and migrants
A White American is defined as anyone who is identified as being only white and non-Hispanic. Whites were not the first people to settle in what is now the U.S. The first immigrants were a people known today as American Indians and Alaskan natives, also commonly referred to as Native Americans who arrived around 14,000 years ago in North America. Is the decrease in the white population is new or sudden? No, it’s not. The population of white Americans started to decline in 1950. It keep felling to reach around 60% in 2018. This made 14 states and the District of Columbia a white minority region. The situation is not going to improve soon. In 2020, it is projected that more nonwhite children will be born than white children in the U.S. Also, the nonwhite population is growing more rapidly than the white population. Statistically, minorities accounted for 92% of the U.S. population growth between 2010 and 2018. The main reasons behind the growing population of nonwhite Americans are fertility rate and age structure. White women have a fertility rate of 1.7 while the Latina women’s average is 2.2. And for blacks, Asians and American Indians fertility rate lies in between. While only 42 percent of white women are more than 15 and can give birth to infants while for the minority it is 62 percent which is another indication of this trend to continue further.
In 2015, for the first time in the history of America, there were more white deaths in the U.S. than white births. As of 2016, in 26 states, whites were dying faster than they were being born, such states include California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Also, immigration is an important factor. In 2015, 43 million immigrants live in the US, of which 82% originated in Latin America and Asia. Only 11% were born in Europe. So non-white population increases via immigration.
Threat and Conservative Policy
Changing demographics of any country around the world impose new challenges. In the US it brought a unique challenge. White has been in the majority of the US and has been exercising all the power for years. And now the sudden fear to be in minority is threatening them of loosing power and their identity. Also, a large number of the immigrants who came to the US are financially not capable to live in the US. This puts them in a situation to commit a crime for their daily livelihood. The proportion of non-whites in crime has significantly increased. Competition for jobs has been increasing and many white Americans have been forced to live in their car as a large number of people are falling into the poor categories from the middle class and can’t afford to pay rent for apartments. Native Americans see immigrants as root to these problems. As the population of white American will slip beyond 50 percent, the possibility of losing election to non-white Americans drastically grows. And that’s the reason the US is moving towards conservative policy especially in immigration. The new regulation states that asylum seekers may be sent to any other countries with which the United States has asylum agreements that permit such an action. Trump immigration policy has a majority center around six areas: 1) Completion of the border wall with Mexico 2) Deport immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. They are currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 3) Restrict travel and work visas from eight countries. 4) Increase the screening of refugees while cutting the staff needed. 5) Review the H-1B visa program. 6) Curb legal immigration. All these steps show how the policy of the US administration is doing to take conservative form. And in many of these policy white supremacy is being reflected back.
Increasing White Nativism
As the fact about the decreasing population in the US has been realized by its educated citizens, many poses it a modern challenge that needs to solved by government policy. While few of them go to take the next step to possible stop this or at least make this issue to be widely discussed among Americans. And this lead to modern movement for increasing White Nativism in the modern US, a time just after the country was becoming more liberal in its policy. White supremacy ideology has been started becoming mainstream after a long history of liberalization. This ideology in the current time are emerging with the following beliefs: 1) whites should be dominant over people of other backgrounds; 2) whites should live by themselves in a whites-only society; 3) white people have their own “culture” that is superior to other cultures, and 4) white people are genetically superior to other people. These white supremacist activists have been involved in many gun violence after 2010. The group is quite active on different social media platforms and has been the majority supporter of Trump, admiring his foreign policies against immigrants. This is another factor that is going to shape the 2020 presidential election of the US. Also, the group organizes protests against immigrants in an attempt to make their daily life difficult and somehow they leave the US. Hate speech and organized twitter trends are also very common online for immigrants and leaders supporting them. Increasing Islamophobia in the country is a clear indication of that. White Americans reason themselves are fighting for their identity which looks faded in the long run while the immigrants who came to live an American Dream are left doing everything for their survival.
