Immigration to America has a long history dating back to colonial times when English settlers first began migrating. Over the centuries, America experienced waves of immigration from different parts of the world, including northern and southern Europe in the mid-19th century, southern and eastern Europe around the early 20th century, and more recently from Latin America and Asia after 1965. While immigration laws and rates have varied over time, the American Dream of achieving prosperity through hard work continues to attract millions of immigrants worldwide to the United States each year.
2. • Immigration to America has a long standing tradition.
Ever since the American continent was discovered
millions of people from many different nations have
chosen or were forced to leave their home country
behind.
• Today Immigration to America is still something many
people all over the world are dreaming about on a daily
basis. They hope to start a new life there, leaving their old
one behind for various reasons.
4. American immigration history
can be viewed in 4 epochs:
the colonial period the mid-nineteenth the turn of the post-1965
century twentieth
During this period The mid-nineteenth the early twentieth- mostly from Latin
approximately century saw mainly century mainly from America and Asia
175,000 Englishmen an influx from Southern and
migrated to Colonial northern Europe Eastern Europe
America
5. • In the early years of the United States,
immigration was about 8,000 people a year.
After 1820, immigration gradually increased.
From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans
migrated to the United States. The death rate
on these transatlantic voyages was high; one
in seven travellers died.
6. • In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration
law.
7. The peak year of European immigration was in 1907 when 1,285,349
persons entered the country.
8. • In the early 1930s, more
people emigrated from
the United States than
immigrated to it. The
U.S. government
sponsored a Mexican
Repatriation program
which was intended to
encourage people to
voluntarily move to
Mexico, but thousands
were deported against
their will. Altogether
about 400,000 Mexicans
were repatriated.
9.
10. • In 1990, President Bush signed the
Immigration Act of 1990, which
increased legal immigration to the
United States by 40%. Nearly 8 million
immigrants came to the United States
from 2000 to 2005 – more than in any
11.
12. • The American Dream is the belief that
through hard work and determination, any
United States immigrant can achieve a better
life, usually in terms of financial prosperity
and personal freedom of choice.
