ABSTRACT
The USA is a country with a population of approximately 294 million. Immigrants account for 11.1 per cent of the US population, of which 42.4 per cent entered the country after 1990. Mexico accounts for the largest number of immigrants known as Hispanic migrants. A sizeable proportion of the population, 17.5 per cent, speaks a language other than English at home. The US is an ethnically heterogeneous nation with a population consisting of African Americans (12.3 per cent), American Indian or Alaska native persons (0.9 per cent), Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (0.1 per cent), Asian (3.6 per cent) and Hispanic or Latino origin (12.5 per cent). About 12.7 per cent of the population lives in poverty (data for 2004); however, one-quarter of African Americans live in poverty and over one-fifth of Hispanics. African Americans are disproportionately represented among the homeless population, with some estimating as much as 44 per cent of the homeless are African Americans (Jencks, 1994).
