In effect there are two very different American situations.  In some areas immigration has reached record levels.  In others it is only a trickle. These latter places have not been entirely untouched.  For example, Nashville had very few immigrant residents in 1990, only 18,000, but this number tripled during the decade and grew from 1.8% to 4.7% of the total.  Still, places like this (and many other places with much smaller population change) have been largely shielded from the influx of newcomers that is so large a factor in social relations, the economy, and politics in the country as a whole.  

Major destinations of metropolitan immigrants 

Immigrants are found in every part of the country, but just 13 metropolitan areas, which together have a quarter of the U.S. population, house more than half the immigrants.  These locations are listed in Table 3, which gives the 1990 and 2000 numbers of immigrants in each one, along with the percentage of the total population that is foreign-born.  Reviewing these one at a time, we notice not only the scale of immigration but also the diversity of origins and the variations across the country in where the newcomers are from.