IMMIGRATION

Immigration and Ethnic History

Immigration and Ethnic History

Introduction

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Remember, remember always, that all of us are descended from immigrants and revolutionists”. America has always prided itself on being a nation of immigrants. Worldwide, people have migrated to the continent since the Norse Vikings explored the North American coast in the 11th century. They continue to come here to this day. Over time, the United States has become known as the “land of opportunity,” where anyone who makes a committed effort can prosper—an idea commonly known as “The American Dream”. As the nation grew, so did instances of conflict with new arrivals. To restrain the political and social tension resulting from the influx of immigration, laws were passed in 1882 that made it progressively more difficult for people to immigrate to the United States. These restrictions on immigration have resulted in a situation where many more people want to come to the United States than there are visas available. More than 35 million foreigners enter the United States each year, and hundreds of thousands of them enter illegally, in spite of restrictive immigration laws. In this essay, we will discuss the immigration history of ethnic group in United States.

Discussion

Since the mid-nineteenth century until the First World War saw the largest migration flows in the history of mankind. Between 1989 and 2002, immigration to U.S. was in the first case, 1 million legal immigrants and about 500,000 illegal per year and in the second case, 1.2 million estimated 500,000 legal and illegal (Genova, 2004). At present, the most fundamental causes that drive migration to United States are:

Employment opportunities and wishes to improve the level of income.

2. The chaos and political repression in the countries exporting labor

3. The transition from agriculture to industrialization

History of Migration in United States

After the European discovery of America in 1492, the settlement of the North American continent was made by Europeans after 1492 from three principal directions: Spaniards settled first in Central America and moved (from about 1528) coming from the south over the Rio Grande in what is now California, the city name (San Francisco, Los Angeles) identified Spanish origin. After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) half of what was then Mexican territory in several U.S. states were divided. - French populated (from about 1605) ago the continent from the north-east, it is about Quebec, a French foundation, and the territory of the United States today the city of Detroit or the state of Illinois (Dorothee, 1998). From the Midwest from French settlers then moved south along the Mississippi River, which name as Louisiana State or city name called New Orleans product. - English settlers first landed finally in what is now Jamestown (VA) (1607) and 1620 on the Mayflower in Massachusetts. Other major waves of migration were:

1628 - 1640: about 20,000 English Puritans settled in New England.

1629 - 1640: 8000 Dutch settled in the United States.

1645 - 1670: 45,000 British Royalists emigrated in the middle colonies and ...