Editing Lawrence, Massachusetts (section)

====New immigrants, 1970 to present====
Immigration of foreign-born workers to Lawrence largely ceased in 1921 with the passage of strict quotas against immigrants from the countries that had supplied the cheap, unskilled workers.

Although many quotas were lifted after the Second World War, [[Immigration to the United States|foreign immigration]] to Lawrence only increased again in the early 1960s, with Hispanic immigrants from [[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]], the [[Dominican Republic]], and other Latin American countries. Immigrants from [[Southeast Asia]], particularly [[Vietnam]], have also settled in Lawrence.

Indicative of immigration trends, several [[Catholic churches]] now conduct masses in two or more languages. [[Saint Patrick|St. Patrick]]'s Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week.<ref>[http://www.mfh.org/newsandevents/newsletter/MassHumanities/Spring2005/parrish.html "Scenes from a Parish" Mass Humanities, Spring 1995] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620015510/http://www.mfh.org/newsandevents/newsletter/MassHumanities/Spring2005/parrish.html |date=2008-06-20 }}</ref> St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners. It has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1989s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic [[evangelical]] churches.<ref>{{cite news| last=Betances| first=Yadira| url=http://www.eagletribune.com/homepage/local_story_360094509?keyword=leadpicturestory+page=0| title=Protestant congregations eyeing vacant Catholic church properties| newspaper=Eagle-Tribune| date=December 26, 2006| access-date=April 10, 2008| archive-date=March 16, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316010003/http://www.eagletribune.com/homepage/local_story_360094509?keyword=leadpicturestory+page=0| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups:

Dominican Republic, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%;  Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%;  Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=2999|title=Lawrence – Lawrence – Ancestry & family history – ePodunk|work=epodunk.com|access-date=2008-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316092930/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=2999|archive-date=2009-03-16|url-status=dead}}</ref>