1. Immigration Past and Present: A Nation of Immigrants
12 September 2016 by
Sigrid B. Wangsness

2. The Beginnings Native Americans European explorers and
missionaries (Spanish,
French, English)
In the 1500s: The first settlers from Europe (Spanish, French, Dutch)

3. The Foundation: The First Colonies
1607: Jamestown, Virginia (English)
1619: The first black slaves were
imported from Africa
1620: The Pilgrim Fathers, Boston, Mass.
The first Thanksgiving
The English, Spanish, French and Dutch battled each other and Native Americans for territory

4. The First Wave of Immigration: 1680 – 1776
In 1680: 80% of the population English
By 1776: The English only 52% of the
population due to new
immigrants from Ireland,
Scotland, Germany and France

5. American Independence and Revolution
1776: Independence: The United States
of America
: American War of Independence
from Britain (= The American Revolution) The 13 colonies → states
Territories → states
:Few new immigrants to the USA: The
Anglo-American culture firmly established English as the official language

6. The Second Wave: 1820 – 1880/1890
“Old” immigration (from northern / western Europe)
Britons, Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, Jews
Pioneering, farming

7. The Third Wave: 1890 – 1920/30
“New” immigration (from eastern / southern Europe):
Italians, Russians, Hungarians, Austrians, Poles, Jews, Czechs, Greeks, Portuguese
( + Syrians, Mexicans, Japanese)

8. The Third Wave: 1890 – 1920/30 East coast, cities, factory workers
1921 and 1924: Restrictive immigration
laws
Quotas favouring north-western
Europeans
1929: Oriental Exclusion Act

9. The Fourth Wave: 1930s – today
1930s: Little immigration due to
the Depression
1940s: Second World War and
Cold War refugees
1950s: Mexican contract (farm) workers

10. The Fourth Wave: 1930 – today
Major change: 1965 and 1990: Expansive immigration laws
Increase in non-European immigration
The 1990 Act: 700,000 immigrants per
year + people with special
skills (European “brain drain”)

11. National and Cultural Identity
Assimilation ("the melting pot ")
= Americanization
Institutions of assimilation:
Preservation ("the salad bowl")
= Integration (?)

12. Is the U.S.A. still a nation of immigrants?
Immigration today:
1. Legal immigration
Around 900,000 legal
immigrants come to the USA every year,
mostly Hispanics and Asians.
Most of these go to California, Florida,Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois.

13. 2. Illegal immigration There are around 11 million
illegal immigrants in the USA
today (more than half from
Mexico).
Demonstrations - both in favour
and against illegal immigrants
(cf. the video about illegal
immigrants in Georgia).
What are the main arguments?

14. How to reduce illegal immigration?
Suggested measures to reduce illegal immigration:
- Increase funding for border
security
- Build more fences
- Build a wall
- Improve the policing of the border and use
the National Guard as border patrol

15. Suggested measures to reduce illegal immigration:
Allow state police to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws
- Allow a state to arrest and drive out illegal immigrants (= make illegal immigration a serious crime)
- Grant “guest worker” status and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in America (amnesty)

16. Suggested measures to reduce illegal immigration:
- Have clear conditions linked to guest- worker programme (e.g. learn English, pay taxes for years back)
- Make tamper-proof identity cards
- Hold employers to account
Other possible measures?

17. Factors that discourage immigration
Why did/do so many people want to go to the USA? (In the 19th and 20th centuries, but also today?)
Push factors
Pull factors
Factors that discourage immigration
Gains and costs of immigration (for the immigrants themselves)