10.3: Culturally Diverse and Aging Populations

Learning Objectives

• Analyze immigration patterns in Canada and the United States.
• Compare geographies of language and religion in Canada and the United States.
• Explain the economic and social impacts of aging populations.

 

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its Legacy

W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the preeminent black intellectuals and activists of the late 19th and 20th centuries, wrote that the African slave trade, which transported between 10 and 15 million Africans across the Atlantic to work as slaves in the Americas, was the most important “drama in the last thousand years of human history.” The trade tore Africans away from “the dark beauty of their mother continent into the new-found Eldorado of the West. They descended into Hell.” Rather than a primitive, archaic system, the transatlantic slave trade, and the labor performed by African and African-American slaves, created the modern Western world—one characterized by a global, interconnected system of capitalist expansion. The trade regarded human beings as commodities who themselves labored to produce commodities—gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, cotton – that generated profits for plantation owners, manufacturers, and merchants. African and African-American slaves resisted enslavement at every stage and found ways to create new communities, new kinship networks, and new cultures in defiance of an inherently dehumanizing system of racial slavery that survived for more than four hundred years.

Despite the exploitation and dehumanization they endured as slaves, Africans created new cultures and kinship ties that drew from their roots in Africa and their new experiences and contacts in the Americas. These African-American cultures would become the basis of Black resistance and resilience for generations of enslaved persons while, later, also becoming a fundamental part of the history and culture of the United States of America.

 

Immigration Patterns

Canada

When Canada became a country in 1867, the first Prime Minister was an immigrant. Sir John Alexander Macdonald, was born in Scotland on January 11, 1815, came to Upper Canada as a child. In 1937, John Buchan, the 1st Baron Tweedsmuir and Governor General of Canada (1935-40) said immigrant groups “should retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character,” a philosophy that is carried forward in Canada’s Multiculturalism policy.

The Dominion Lands Act was the 1872 piece of legislation that granted a quarter section of free land (160 acres or 64.7 hectares) to any settler 21 years of age or older who paid a ten–dollar registration fee, lived on his quarter section for three years, cultivated 30 acres (11.1 hectares), and built a permanent dwelling. By 1914, some 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles, and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway, and Sweden settled in the West and developed a thriving agricultural sector. Additionally, between 1901 and 1914, more than 750,000 immigrants entered Canada from the United States. While many were returning Canadians, about one–third were newcomers of European extraction—Germans, Hungarians, Norwegians, Swedes, and Icelanders—who had originally settled in the American West.

By the 1960s, one-third of Canadians had origins that were neither British nor French, and took pride in preserving their distinct culture in the Canadian fabric. Today, most immigrants come from China, Philippines and India. The proportion of foreign-born Canadians was 17.6 percent in 2021 and 24 percent of Canada’s population speaks languages other than English and French. Since the fertility rate in Canada is only 1.68 children per female, the majority of Canada’s population growth is due to immigration.

 

United States

Immigration and Race in Early Immigration Law

The history of U.S. immigration and nationality law demonstrates how race became a factor in determining who could come to America and who could not. Studies of Chinese exclusion laws or the old immigration "quota system" trace a tradition of racist immigration policy. The Supreme Court reinforced this policy in the 1920s with a decision stating that Americans shared a "common understanding" of who was and was not "white," and by extension shared a "common understanding" of who did and did not belong in the United States.

Despite Supreme Court pronouncements, federal officials charged with administration of U.S. immigration and nationality laws were keenly aware that not all Americans shared the same understanding at any given time. More importantly, any "common understanding" of race or ethnicity shared by a majority of American society evolved over time, while the law remained locked in eighteenth century language.

After 1790, and throughout the nineteenth century, Congress legislated separately regarding immigration and nationality. With the exception of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the two bodies of immigration and nationality law were not coordinated, nor did either make any reference to the other. During the antebellum years and for a time thereafter, immigration and nationality law appeared to agree and serve national goals. The United States achieved a policy of free and open immigration largely by failing to legislate on the subject at that time. The Steerage Act of 1819 remains Congress's most aggressive action regarding immigration prior to 1875, and the 1819 law worked to encourage immigration by ensuring safe and healthy conditions aboard passenger ships. As the nation marched west and dispossessed Native Americans, a regular supply of immigrants from Europe arrived to occupy new territories and hold them for their new nation.

Immigration to the United states has typically occurred in waves—with various groups of people moving in larger numbers at different points in American history (Figure 10.3.1). The first wave was comprised of more than 4 million Irish people who immigrated in the mid-1800s due to famine. In the 1800s, more than 5 million Germans immigrated due to religious persecution, high unemployment rates, and political unrest.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Immigration to the United States by country of origin (top graph shows total number; bottom graph shows percentage as a total of the U.S. population). (Used by permission; Nick Routley via Visual Capitalist).

 

When gold was discovered in California in 1848, Americans rushed west, hoping to strike it rich. At the same time, a crop failure in southern China and word of riches led approximately 300,000 Chinese to immigrate to the United States (labeled as wave 2 on the bottom charge of Figure 10.3.1). Once Chinese immigrants arrived in California, they found that gam saan or “gold mountain” was an illusion. Mining was uncertain work, and the gold fields were littered with disappointed prospectors and hostile locals. Work could be scarce, and new arrivals sometimes found it difficult to earn enough to eat, let alone to strike it rich. Even worse, they soon discovered that they were cut off from their families: With no source of money, the immigrants could not pay for their wives and children to make the long voyage from China, and could not go back home themselves. During their first few decades in the United States, they endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks. The perpetrators of these crimes, which included Americans from many segments of society, largely went unpunished. In the economic depression of the 1870s, hostile attitudes toward Chinese immigrants only became worse. The door to the Chinese American dream was slammed shut in 1882, when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act was the first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history, and it excluded Chinese laborers from the country under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. It also made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship. Chinese immigrants in the U.S. now had little chance of ever reuniting with their families, or of starting families in their new home.

The early 1900s brought a third wave of immigration to the United States. Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States. That was about equal to the number of immigrants who had arrived in the previous 40 years combined. In 1910, three-fourths of New York City's population were either immigrants or first generation Americans (i.e. the sons and daughters of immigrants). Not only were the numbers of immigrants swelling, the countries from which they came had changed dramatically as well. Unlike earlier immigrants, the majority of the newcomers after 1900 came from non-English speaking European countries. The principal source of immigrants was now southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy, Poland, and Russia, countries quite different in culture and language from the United States, and many immigrants had difficulty adjusting to life here.

A fourth wave of immigration began with an executive order, called the Mexican Farm Labor Program, that established the Bracero Program in 1942. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the United States on short-term labor contracts. These agreements addressed a national agricultural labor shortage during WWII and implicitly, they redressed previous depression-era deportations and repatriations that unjustly targeted Mexican Americans who were U.S. citizens. Upon its termination in 1964, the Bracero Program had brought more than four million Braceros (arms) to work in U.S. agriculture and on railroads. During World War II, the U.S. sought labor from millions of Braceros, who would return to their country of origin after their work permit expired. El Paso, Texas, the U.S. point of entry from Ciudad Juarez, served as a recruitment center for the program, which the U.S. Agricultural Department and independent farmer associations administered with the Farm Bureau managing English-language contracts. The United States and Mexico agreed on a set of protocols that would protect Braceros from discrimination and poor wages. Nonetheless, discrimination continued and Braceros experienced surcharges for room and board, deducted pay, and exposure to deadly chemicals. The Bracero Program concluded on December 31, 1964 as mechanization became more widespread. Ultimately, the program resulted in an influx of undocumented and documented laborers, 22 years of cheap labor from Mexico, and remittances to Mexico by Braceros.

In the late 20th and early 21st century, people from Mexico became the largest group of immigrants from any single country. In recent years, however, Asia and Central America have become the top source locations for immigrants. The push and pull factors are varied for immigrants coming from Mexico. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) prompted more immigrants from rural, Indigenous, and farming communities to immigrate as farms needed to compete on a global scale. Forced displacement by the lack of safety caused by Mexican drug cartels contribute to the migration flow from Mexico, as well. Some Mexican immigrants are highly-skilled, with advanced degrees, and arrive to the United States for employment in health, education, and business fields.

There are many more important moments in the immigration history of the United States—too many to delve into here. What’s most important, perhaps, is to think about how the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, U.S. immigration laws, the global economy, and political unrest around the world has shaped the unique ethnoracial composition of the U.S. population as reported in the U.S. Census (Figure 10.3.2). It is important to note that the definitions of ethnoracial categories have not been fixed or universally agreed to. For example, only in the 1930 census were Mexicans counted as a separate race. It was not until 1960 that people could choose their own race on U.S. census forms. And, it was not until 2000 when people could two or more race categories. Currently, the U.S. Census has two questions related to ethnoracial identities. The first relates to the category “Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin", which includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Spanish cultures. The second question asks the persons race based on the Office of Management and Budget standards.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Visualizing America’s Population. The United States is a unique mosaic of cultural diversity—almost 40% of its people belong to racial or ethnic minorities. Over time, the share of white populations is expected to decline to less than half (44%) of all Americans after 2045. The proportion of those with multiple racial backgrounds will more than double by 2060. As of 2019, the white population is 60.1% of the population, the Hispanic population is 18.5%, the Black population is 12.2%, the Asian population is 5.6%, the American Indian/Alaska Native population is 0.7%, the Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander population is 0.2%, and the population with multiple racial backgrounds is 2.8%. (Used by permission; Anupa Iman Ghosh, Raul Amoros, and Zack Aboulazm via Visual Capitalist).

 

Language and Religion

An Eroding Linguistic Landscape

There are approximately 255 languages currently used in North America from dozens of language families (Figure 10.3.3). Nearly 94 percent of these languages are endangered, which means they are in danger of disappearing as its speakers shift to another language or die out. Colonization and the systemic suppression of Indigenous languages through the residential school system and other methods, has led to efforts to revitalize native languages. In 2019, Canada passed the Indigenous Languages Act and provided funding to support the teaching of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis languages. In 2022, the Canadian government released a statement with the following quotes from the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: “Languages are more than just words; they connect people, tell stories, convey wisdom and traditions as well as define who we are. Close to 500 years of colonization has threatened the existence of Indigenous languages, which are core to their cultures. Cultural revitalization, including language promotion, is a crucial step towards dismantling this system. Through the Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program, our government continues to promote Indigenous languages alongside First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners on the path toward reconciliation”.^[1]

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Map of language families in North America (CC BY 2.0; ish ishwar via Wikimedia Commons).

 

Religion

Among high-income countries, the United States and Canada larger numbers of religious people. A 2018 report by the Pew Research Center found that 53% of or respondents from the United States and 27% of respondents in Canada said that religion is very important to them in their lives compared to 10% in the United Kingdom, 11% in France, and 22% in Spain.^[2] The same report indicates that of ”102 countries, the U.S. is the only one with both above-average GDP (gross domestic product) per capita and above-average frequency of daily prayer".

 

Canada

About 53 percent of the Canadian population are Christian with Roman Catholicism being the largest denomination. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of Roman Catholics in Canada increased slightly, while the number adhering to Protestant denominations continued a long-term decline. The census enumerated just under 12.8 million Roman Catholics, up 4.8 percent, while the number of Protestants fell 8.2 percent to about 8.7 million. The largest gains in religious affiliations occurred among faiths consistent with changing immigration patterns toward more immigrants from regions outside of Europe, in particular South Asia and Southwest Asia. Approximately 5 percent of Canadians are Muslim, 2 percent are Hindu, 2 percent are Sikhs, 1 percent are Buddhist, and less than 1 percent are Jewish or have an Indigenous spirituality (Figure 10.3.4).

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Distribution of religious affiliations, population aged 15 and older, 2017 to 2019. Christian (3.2%), No religion or secular perspectives (26.3%), Muslim (3.7%), Hindu (1.7%), Sikh (1.4%), Buddhist (1.4%), Other religious and spiritual traditions (1.2%), and Jewish (1%). (public domain; adapted from Statistics Canada).

 

United States

At its founding, most early settlers to the United States were Protestant Christians: Puritans lived in New England and Anglicans (later called Episcopalians) lived in Virginia. Roman Catholic immigrants settled in Maryland, and members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) founded Pennsylvania. Even within that overall picture, there was a great deal of religious diversity in the United States, and that diversity increased as new arrivals came from different countries with different religious backgrounds. The current pattern of religious affiliation in the United States remains quite complex, and one can find observers of nearly every major religion, and many minor ones, in virtually every area of the country. That being said, there are clear patterns to the geography of religion in the United States that tell stories of immigration and migration history, as well as stories about other aspects of American history. The map of leading church bodies shows regions of religious observance that are worth examining (Figure 10.3.5).

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Major religious denominations by state, 2014 (CC BY-SA 4.0; via Wikimedia Commons using Pew Research Center data).

 

Baptist churches are the leading religious body in about 45 percent of all counties in the United States and most of those counties are found in the South. This region is considered the nation’s Bible Belt, and it is a region in which churches are more likely than in other parts of the country to teach a literal interpretation of the Bible. Baptist churches grew in popularity in the South after the Civil War as more liturgical denominations such as Methodists went into decline, and Baptist churches are popular among both African American and white residents.

Another interesting Protestant region is northern Appalachia and the lower Midwest from Ohio to Iowa and Kansas. As seen on the map, some of these counties are Baptist, in some of them the strongest church presence is Methodist, and in others it is Christian churches (Disciples of Christ and historically similar denominations) that prevail. The Methodist and other Christian areas were heavily influenced by the Second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century, which promoted the theology that every person could be saved through revivals. The movement provided for strong showings of Protestant denominations that arose during that time. The third Protestant region is the northern Midwest and Great Plains: Minnesota, the Dakotas, and surrounding areas. This was the destination of German and Scandinavian Lutheran settlers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the leading denominations today in much of that area remain Lutheran.

The Roman Catholic Church, which is the leading religious body in 40 percent of US counties, is well represented in the Northeast, West, and Southwest. In the Northeast and Midwest, the Catholic dominance points to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century immigration from Roman Catholic countries in Europe such as Italy, Ireland, and Poland. Those earlier Catholics have been joined more recently by large numbers of Hispanic immigrants. The dominance of Roman Catholics in the western United States, the Southwest, and even Florida in the Southeast are a reflection of the strong Hispanic presence in those parts of the country.

In the western United States, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon church or LDS) dominates a region including Utah and surrounding states. Utah was the destination of Mormon members as they migrated westward during the mid-nineteenth century.

Major urban centers are home to people who follow all the major religions of the world. About 2.4 percent of the U.S. population are Jewish. The states with the largest Jewish populations are New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Muslim populations are found in cities as a result of late twentieth century immigrants arriving from countries such as India, Pakistan, and places in the Southwest and moving to urban areas for employment. Detroit and its surrounding counties in southeastern Michigan are one part of the country with a high concentration of Muslims, which make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population. Buddhists also make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population and a large concentration of Buddhists live in California.

 

Aging Populations

Several countries today are facing an aging population since the median age of the population has increased and a larger portion of the population is older. Two primary reasons for this are increased life expectancy and lower birth rates. Currently, the majority of the countries facing this demographic phenomenon consists of advanced economies, including Canada and the United States. This leads to higher values for the old-age dependency ratio, which is the number of individuals aged 65 and older per 100 people of working age (defined as those ages 20 to 64). In Canada, approximately 19 percent of the population is aged 65 years or older and the old-age dependency ratio is 32%. In the United States, the proportion of people aged 65 or older increased from 4 percent in 1900 to about 17 percent in 2020. The U.S. old-age dependency ratio is 30%. The number of older Canadians and Americans has increased in recent years due to the age of baby boomers—the generation that was born in the twenty years following World War II. As soldiers returned from war, families began to grow. This generation is now beginning to enter their older years. Figure 10.3.6 shows U.S. Census data: the graphs of the left compare the number of adults aged 65 and older to children under 18 years old. The graphics on the right show the 1960 and projected 2060 population pyramids for the United States.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): An aging nation: Projected number of children and older adults. For the first time in U.S. history, older adults are projected to outnumber children by 2034. (public domain by U.S. Census Bureau).

 

There may be some economic advantages to having a higher old-age dependency ratio. For example, since older people have higher accumulated savings per head than younger individuals do, an older population can result in lower interest rates as well as a lower rate of inflation. However, for the most part, an older population leads to a lot of financial pressure on both the public and private sectors. For example, it is probably going to become increasingly difficult to pay corporate, federal, and state pensions, because the number of workers relative to retirees is shrinking in the US. In order to improve the sustainability of the pension system, a few measures can be undertaken. And, the worker-retiree ratio can be rectified by increasing the retirement age or by changing employment and immigration policies. An immigration website by the government of Canada states that:

• If it weren’t for immigrants, employers would have trouble finding enough qualified workers to fill available jobs. This is because Canadians are living longer and having fewer children. More people are retiring, and there are fewer students in schools. As a result, the pool of Canadian-born existing and potential workers is limited.
• Immigrants contribute to our economy, not only by filling gaps in our labor force and paying taxes, but also by spending money on goods, housing and transportation.
• Without immigrants to help support the needs of an aging population, younger Canadians would end up paying more income tax per person to provide retired Canadians with the same benefits that are available today.^[3]

It may become necessary to expand resources to fund pensions through increased contributions or higher taxes. Trying to implement any of these solutions will likely result in some level of controversy and public debate.

Another significant source of problems related to an older population resides in the healthcare sector. In 1965, Congress created Medicare under the Social Security Act in order to provide health insurance to U.S. citizens over the age of 65, regardless of their income and medical history. Aside from premiums paid by Medicare enrollees along with the fund source itself, Medicare is financed by revenue levied on employers and workers through the Federal Insurance Contributions Act and the Self-Employment Contributions Act. However, due to rising enrollment as the population ages and a decreasing ratio of workers to enrollers, Medicare is facing financial difficulties. While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is supposed to address many issues confronting the healthcare sector today, the rising cost of healthcare remains a national problem, as patients are paying more in order to receive the same care as before.

 

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References:

[1] Government of Canada. 2022. Government of Canada makes historic contribution to support Indigenous languages in the North.

[2] Pew Research Center. 2018. The Age Gap in Religion around the World.

[3] Government of Canada. 2022. #ImmigrationMatters: Canada’s immigration track record.

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Attributions:

“The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its Legacy” is adapted from African American History for HIST 244 by Christopher Collins (CC BY-NC-SA).

“Immigration” is adapted from Race, nationality, and reality; INS Administration of Racial Provisions in U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law Since 1898 by Marian L. Smith for the National Archives (public domain); Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 by the Library of Congress (public domain); 1942: Bracero Program by the Library of Congress (public domain); and Backgrounder - Facts in Canada's Immigration by the Government of Canada (public domain).

“Language and Religion” is adapted from World Regional Geography by Royal Berglee (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0); World Regional Geography by Caitlin Finlayson (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0); Introduction to World Regional Geography by R. Adam Dastrup (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0); Religious Affiliation, 2001: Other Religions by Census Division by the Government of Canada (public domain); and Religion in Canada by the Government of Canada (public domain).

“Aging Populations” is adapted from SOC 002: Social Issues and Problems by Boundless (CC BY-SA 4.0).