Immigration in the United States

Immigration to the United States from 1789 to 1930 made the U.S. what it is today. Considered the melting pot of the world, the U.S. incurred immigration from many countries around the world, especially from Europe.

Many immigrants came as whole families. Others came one at a time and sent for other family members as they could afford it.

Immigration began in force in the late 1700’s / early 1800’s. Scotch- Irish were some of the first immigrants to settle in the new United States. These immigrants settled west of the Appalachian Mountains in an area known as “the back country”. They settled in this area to take advantage of farming opportunities. Since then, the Irish have been one of the top immigrating groups to our country. Below is a picture of Irish immigrants in the early 1900’s.

Swedish immigrants began arriving in the United States during the early and middle 1800’s. These immigrants brought with them skilled trades, such as carpentry and furniture-making. Swedish workers would make a major impact on woodworking and other construction skills for years to come.

Eastern and southern European immigrants began arriving in the United States in the middle 1800’s and early 1900’s. Italians became one of the first southern European immigrant groups to migrate to the United States. The skills and expertise they brought with them included stone-masonry, which can be seen today in the numerous churches across the eastern and middle United States. Here is a picture of Italian immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early 1900’s.

German immigrants originally came to the United States to take advantage of the abundance of land and the opportunity to farm, both in food crops and dairy products. They also contributed to scientific research and technological advances.

We have already discussed some of the contributions of the early immigrants to the United States. Can you think of any other contributions that these immigrants made to our country?

Now we will look at more recent immigrants from other parts of the world, like Latin America, Asia, and Africa. We have discussed the earlier immigrants to the United States, which included people from European countries.

One of the more prominent immigrant groups from Asia included the Chinese. In the middle 1800’s, mass numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the United States, helping to build the Transcontinental Railroad and taking advantage of mining opportunities in the West. This picture shows a group of later Chinese immigrants to the U.S., after they had settled in for many years.

Latin Americans, especially people from Mexico, have made a major impact on the population of the United States, as well as the U.S. workforce. Mexican Americans are highly concentrated in service jobs, as well as labor- intensive farming jobs. They are also heavily involved in commercial and residential construction. Their numbers have made them one of the top- growing immigrant groups in recent years. Currently, immigration legislation has been proposed to naturalize many of the illegal immigrants coming from Mexico.

The earliest Africans to arrive in this country were not immigrants, but were brought as slaves in the late-1600’s, into the 1700’s. These individuals were part of the Triangular Trade, which initially brought labor to the Caribbean islands, in exchange for Caribbean goods. As the southern United States developed agriculturally, slaves were then brought to work on rice and cotton plantations. This use of man labor could be considered to be one of the greatest injustices committed against people coming to the U.S.

In more recent times, Africans have immigrated to the United States in professional capacities, such as doctors, teachers, etc. They have also had a major impact in the passage of civil rights laws, setting a precedent for all immigrants.

Can you think of some of the additional contributions made to our country by the Asians, Latin Americans, and Africans?

Next we will look at some graphs and charts that illustrate immigration trends in the United States…

The U.S. entered the 20 th century during a period of massive change. Many social and economic changes were sweeping the country, and immigrants saw many opportunities and freedoms in the United States that they could not pass up. This chart shows the changes in the U.S. population and its ethnic groups from Which immigrant group had the largest increase from ?

In 40 years, between 1880 and 1920, more than 20 million people came to the United States. Although most immigrants came from Europe, many came from Asia.

the building of railroads in the U.S. Irish immigrants came to the U.S., starting in the early 1800’s. This graph shows the number of Irish immigrants to the U.S. from 1825 to Can you think of possible causes for the peak in Irish immigration in the 1850’s?

Today we have discussed some of the major immigrant groups that have come to our country. Each group came for similar reasons of opportunities for freedom and prosperity, yet each group made a unique contribution to the growth and development of the United States. These groups continue to make major contributions to the continued success of the American people—a diversity of people united for the cause of a better life. Now it’s your turn to think about yourselves. What ethnic group(s) do you descend from? What contributions has your group made for the betterment of the U.S.?

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