Demographer Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about half of the last 100 million Americans are immigrants and their U.S.-born children. Without them, the population would be 247 million, he says. The Hispanic-American population would total 16 million instead of 44 million. Asian-Americans would number 2 million, not 13 million.
But history suggests that America will change them more than they change us. Our national character and culture are enormously powerful and resilient. In the 1830s Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, author of “Democracy in America,” identified some American traits, including rampant materialism, religious fervor (and competing denominations) and fierce patriotism. In 1830 the population was 13 million. But if he returned today, de Tocqueville would find the same traits despite massive changes in people and technology.