Immigration Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about US immigration

Immigration Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

“What is immigration to the United States?
A: Immigration to the United States is the international movement of non-U.S. nationals in order to reside permanently in the country.

Lawful immigration has been a major source of what throughout much of the U.S. history?
A: Population growth and cultural change.

Because the United States is a settler colonial society, all Americans, with the exception of the small percent of Native Americans, can trace their ancestry to whom?
A: Immigrants from other nations around the world.

In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than what?
A: Than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015.

This represents what percentage of the 244 million international migrants worldwide?
A: 19.1%, and 14.4% of the U.S. population.

Some other countries have larger proportions of immigrants, such as where?
A: Switzerland with 24.9% and Canada with 21.9%.

According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted how many legal immigrants in 2016?
A: 1.18 million.

Of these, how many were family-sponsored?
A: 20%.

What percentage were the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens?
A: 47%.

What percentage were refugees and/or asylum seekers?
A: 13%.

The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as what?
A: Maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

Prior to 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from what areas?
A: Areas outside Western Europe.

Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from where?
A: Asia and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Eastern European immigration.

The civil rights movement led to the replacement of these ethnic quotas with what?
A: Per-country limits.

Since then, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has what?
A: Quadrupled.

Research suggests that immigration to the United States is beneficial to what?
A: The U.S. economy.

With few exceptions, the evidence suggests that on average, immigration has positive economic effects on the native population, but it is mixed as to whether low-skilled immigration adversely affects what?
A: Low-skilled natives.

Studies also show that immigrants have lower crime rates than whom?
A: Natives in the United States.

Research shows that the United States excels at doing what?
A: Assimilating first- and second-generation immigrants relative to many other Western countries.

American immigration history can be viewed in what four epochs?
A: The colonial period, the mid-19th century, the start of the 20th century, and post-1965.

Each period brought distinct “what” to the United States?
A: National groups, races and ethnicities.

During the 17th century, approximately how many English people migrated to Colonial America?
A: 400,000.

How many stayed permanently?
A: Half.

Between 1600 and 1799, historians estimate that how many immigrants moved to the United States from Europe?
A: Fewer than 1 million.

By comparison, in the first federal census, in 1790, the population of the United States was enumerated to be what?
A: 3,929,214.

The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to whom?
A: "Free white persons".

When was it expanded to include blacks?
A: In the 1860s and Asians only in the 1950s.

Why did this make the United States an outlier?
A: Laws that made racial distinctions were uncommon in the world in the 18th Century.

In the early years of the United States, immigration was fewer than how many people a year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti?
A: 8,000.

After 1820 immigration gradually did what?
A: Increased.

From 1836 to 1914, how many Europeans migrated to the United States?
A: Over 30 million.

The death rate on these transatlantic voyages was high, during which how many travelers died?
A: One in seven.

In 1875, the nation passed its first what?
A: Immigration law, the Page Act of 1875.

After an initial wave of immigration from China following the California Gold Rush, Congress passed a series of laws culminating in what?
A: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning virtually all immigration from China until the law's repeal in 1943.

In the late 1800s, immigration from other Asian countries, especially to the West Coast, became what?
A: More common.

What was the peak year of European immigration?
A: It was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country.

By 1910, how many immigrants were living in the United States?
A: 13.5 million.

In 1921, the Congress passed what?
A: The Emergency Quota Act, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924.

The 1924 Act was aimed at what?
A: Further restricting immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, particularly Jews, Italians, and Slavs, who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s, and consolidated the prohibition of Asian immigration.

The welfare system was practically non-existent before the 1930s and the economic pressures on the poor were giving rise to what?
A: Child labor.

Immigration patterns of the 1930s were affected by what?
A: The Great Depression.

In the final prosperous year, 1929, there were how many immigrants recorded?
A: 279,678.

How many moved to the US in 1933?
A: Only 23,068.

In the early 1930s, more people did what?
A: Emigrated from the United States than to it.

The U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was intended to do what?
A: To encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their will.

Altogether about how many Mexicans were repatriated half of them US citizens?
A: 400,000.

Most of the Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and World War II were what?
A: Barred from coming to the United States.

In 1954, in the post-war era, the Justice Department launched Operation Wetback, under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were what?
A: Deported.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, abolished what?
A: The system of national-origin quotas.

By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in what?
A: New immigration from non-European nations, which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States.

In 1970, 60% of immigrants were from Europe; this decreased to what by 2000?
A: 15%.

In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by how much?
A: 40%.

In 1991, Bush signed the Armed Forces Immigration Adjustment Act 1991, allowing foreign service members who had served 12 or more years in the US Armed Forces to qualify for what?
A: Permanent residency and, in some cases, citizenship.

In November 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187 amending the state constitution, doing what?
A: Denying state financial aid to illegal immigrants.

The federal courts voided this change, ruling that it did what?
A: Violated the federal constitution.

Appointed by Bill Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended what?
A: Reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to approximately 550,000.

In 2001, President George W. Bush discussed an accord with whom?
A: Mexican President Vincente Fox.

Possible accord was derailed by what?
A: The September 11 attacks.

From 2005 to 2013, the US Congress discussed what?
A: Various ways of controlling immigration.

The Senate and House were unable to what?
A: Reach an agreement.