  | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 429,501 (2019)[1] 0.13% of the U.S. population (2021)[1]  | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| PredominatelyRoman Catholic, minorityProtestantism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Hispanic Americans,Honduran Americans,Guatemalan Americans,Salvadoran Americans,Costa Rican Americans,Panamanian Americans,Spanish Americans |
ANicaraguan American (Spanish:nicaragüense-americano,nicaragüense-estadounidense,norteamericano de origen nicaragüense orestadounidense de origen nicaragüense) is anAmerican ofNicaraguan descent. They are also referred to as "nica" or "nicoya".
The Nicaraguan American population at the 2010 Census was 348,202. Nicaraguans are the eleventh largest Hispanic group in the United States and the fourth largestCentral American population.
More than two-thirds of the Nicaraguan population in the U.S. resides in California or Florida.
InCalifornia, Nicaraguans are more dominant in theGreater Los Angeles Area andSan Francisco Bay Area. Large populations also reside in theInland Empire and the cities ofSacramento,San Diego, andSan Jose.
InFlorida, 90% of Nicaraguans reside in theMiami metropolitan area.Miami-Dade County is home to 30% of Nicaraguans residing in the United States.
Nicaraguans have immigrated to the United States in small groups since the early 1900s, but their presence was especially felt over the last three decades of the 20th century. The Nicaraguan community is mainly concentrated in three major urban areas:Metropolitan Miami,Greater Los Angeles, andSan Francisco Bay Area. A more affluent group of Nicaraguan Americans reside in theNew York metropolitan area.[2]
According to Immigration and Naturalization Service figures, 23,261 Nicaraguans were admitted as permanent residents between 1976 and 1985; 75,264 were admitted between 1986 and 1993; and 94,582 between 1994 and 2002, with a total of 193,107 Nicaraguan immigrants being granted legal status since 1976.[3]
The earliest documents of immigration fromNicaragua to the United States was combined in total with those of otherCentral American countries. However, according to theU.S. Census Bureau some 7,500 Nicaraguans legallyimmigrated from 1967 to 1976. An estimated 28,620 Nicaraguans were living in the U.S. in 1970, 90% of which self-reported aswhite on the 1970census. Most Nicaraguan immigrants during the late 1960s were women: there were only 60 male Nicaraguan immigrants for every 100 female immigrants during this period. This was due to the number of Central American women who came to the US to work as domestic servants while sending remittances back home.[4] Most Central Americans were denied refugee asylum status during the 1980s. While theU.S. Refugee Act of 1980 wanted to favor U.S. foreign policy to help political asylum seekers it mostly favored onlyEastern Bloc or Communist nations or countries in theMiddle East. "Asylum decisions with respect to Salvadorans and Guatemalans reflected U.S. foreign policy, which supported their governments" such asU.S. involvement in regime change in Latin America. Many Nicaraguans were rejected despite theReagan Administration’s stance on helping political refugees. “During the early 1980s, approximately 10 percent of Nicaraguan applicants, compared to 2 to 3 percent of those from El Salvador and Guatemala, received asylum.”[5]
Over 62 percent of the total documented immigration from 1979 to 1988 occurred after 1984.[6] In 1998 more than two million Nicaraguans were left homeless due tohurricane Mitch, as a result many Nicaraguans received permanent residence or temporary protected status (TPS) in the late 1990s.[7]
According to the1990 U.S. census 168,659 of the total 202,658 documented Nicaraguans in the U.S. were born in Nicaragua.[8] In 1992 approximately 10–12% of the Nicaraguan population hademigrated. These emigrants tended to be disproportionately of working age, better educated, and more oftenwhite-collar workers than non-migrants. In addition, emigrants were more likely to come from larger premigration households and higherincome households.[6]
TheSandinista revolution that started in the mid-1970s and theContra war that followed brought the first large waves of Nicaraguanrefugees into the U.S.[9] As a result of the de-privatization reforms under theSandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)'s rule (from 1979 to 1990), the first wave of approximately 120,000 Nicaraguans left Nicaragua and entered the United States.[10]
They consisted mainly of large landholders, industrialists, and managers of North American enterprises. Many Nicaraguan upper-class exiles had economic roots in the United States and in Miami before the upheaval.[10] This phase of upper-class arrivals included exiled dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and his family, who owned homes in Miami and were among the richest people in Florida (ibid).
Another major wave of Nicaraguans to the United States, consisting primarily of blue collar workers, peaked in the dramatic exodus of early 1989.[11] Again, their motivation for migration was to escape from both political and economic torment in their homeland. By the late 1980s, the war,Hurricane Joan in 1988, and a severe drought in 1989 left the country in economic ruins. Many of these Nicaraguan immigrants settled in poor and deteriorated sections of Miami, where struggling Cubans who came during theMariel boatlift exodus of 1980 had previously lived.[12]
Many Nicaraguans who immigrated did so to escape poverty. InSanta Clara County, California, the Nicaraguan public benefits recipients reported that in their families, 43% have oneself-employed person orbusiness owner, and 14% of the families have two such persons.[7]
Nicaraguan Americans are Spanish-speaking and predominatelyCatholic. They celebrate the patron saints of the Roman Catholic Church with festivals and processions, which also provide a context for artistic and cultural expressions of the local identity. The most important patronal festivals for communities inFlorida includeSanta Ana, San Sebastian, La Purisima, San Jeronimo andLa Griteria.[3] Nicaragua is one of the most traditionalist countries in the Americas and so the majority of Nicaraguans define themselves as socially conservatives regardless of party affiliations or place of residence within the United States.
Outside of California and Florida, Nicaraguans can also be found in New York City,New Orleans Metro, and theWashington metropolitan area. Cities with noticeable Nicaraguan populations also includeCharlotte,Houston,Jersey City, andCamden,Milwaukee, Wisconsin andMadison. The Amigos de las Americas program set in motion by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s promoted the sisterhood between states of the U.S. and third world countries. Wisconsin is the original sister State to Nicaragua. Employment and Student exchange programs in the past were the main reason for the first Nicaraguan to arrive and settle in that Midwest State.
The 10 states with the largest population of Nicaraguans (Source: 2010 Census):
The largest population of Nicaraguans are situated in the following areas (Source: Census 2010):
The top 25 U.S. communities with the highest populations of Nicaraguans (Source: Census 2010)
The top 25 U.S. communities with the highest percentages of Nicaraguans as a percent of total population (Source: Census 2010)
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