A Bit of History of Immigration in the U.S.
By Cassandra Clifford
June is Immigrant Heritage Month, a celebration of the accomplishments and contributions immigrants and their children have made in shaping the history, strengthening the economy, and enriching the culture of the United States. We wanted to share the history of just a few of many, many different cultures, heritages, and people who have come to the U.S. today on the blog. Of course, if you would like to read more about these communities and histories, we encourage you to read the articles we are linking in this blog post.
Chinese Immigration to the U.S.
The first known Chinese immigrants to the U.S. came in 1820, decades before the California Gold Rush and construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. The Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869 could not have been completed without the work of Chinese laborers, who made up about 90% of the workers. In spite of the discrimination and overt racism Chinese immigrants faced in the U.S., Chinese workers contributed instrumentally to the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy, going on to become entrepreneurs in their communities.
Since the vast majority of Chinese immigrants were men, growth of the Chinese American population was initially limited and further stifled when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. It was not until 1965, with the passage of a new Immigration Act and re-opening of pathways for non-European immigration to the U.S., that large numbers of Chinese people began to immigrate to the U.S. again. The growth of the Chinese immigrant population has increased to over seven times its size in 1980, from 299,000 people to 2.1 million in 2016.
The population of Chinese Americans was estimated in 2016 to be nearly 5.1 million. New York City is home to the largest metropolitan Chinese population outside of Asia and Chinese people living in the U.S. account for about 27% of Chinese people living outside of China. Some Chinese Americans who have been making waves in film and television recently include Harry Shum, Jr., actor whose most recent performances include Crazy Rich Asians and Shadowhunters, Ali Wong, comedienne and writer of Always Be My Maybe and Fresh off the Boat, and Cathy Yan, director and producer who became the first Asian American woman to direct an American superhero film (Birds of Prey, which was released in February 2020).
Read more: Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese immigration to the U.S. past and present, Chinese immigrants in the U.S., Social & demographic trends
Chinese immigrants who worked on the Transcontinental Railroad, c. 1869.
PC: New York Times/Amon Carter Museum of American Art Archives
Irish Immigration to the U.S.
Beginning in 1845, Europe was afflicted with a potato blight and no other country’s inhabitants were so dependent on potatoes for nourishment as Ireland. Ireland’s food crisis was exacerbated by British rule over Ireland at the time: British corn laws made it illegal for Irish people to import foreign grains, so Irish people relied on potatoes for sustenance. About 1 million Irish people died during the Great Famine and about 2 million more decided to emigrate, most often finding a new home in the U.S. The first immigrant processed at Ellis Island in 1892 was an Irish immigrant from County Cork.
Many Irish immigrants settled in Northeastern port cities, such as Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, which still boast some of the highest concentrations of Irish-Americans in the U.S. Most Irish immigrants worked as unskilled laborers, their work absolutely essential to the Second Industrial Revolution (late 19th/early 20th century). When Irish immigrants began arriving in the U.S., they faced discrimination, both on the basis of being Irish and often also on the basis of being Catholic in a majority-Protestant country.
Irish immigrant communities quickly became one of the most politically engaged ethnic groups in the U.S. Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential candidate, became the first Irish Catholic to run for president, while John F. Kennedy, great-grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants, became the first Irish Catholic president of the U.S. in 1961. Today, about 10% of the American population claims Irish ancestry. If you are looking for some literature about the experience of growing up Irish American in the U.S., Frank McCourt, John O’Hara, and Alice McDermott are great authors to read.
Read more: “The 19th Century Refugee Crisis”, A brief migration history from Ireland to the U.S., Why historians are fighting over “No Irish Need Apply”
Irish immigrants in Boston, c. 1880.
PC: history.com
Italian Immigration to the U.S.
Between 1880 and 1920, over 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States, making up about 10% of the U.S. foreign-born population. At this point in time, there were already Italian-Americans living in the U.S., but instead of artisans from Northeastern Italy which constituted previous Italian immigration to the U.S., many immigrants came from the agricultural South. Many Italian men took up manual labor in urban public works projects--the percentage of Italian workers in public works was as high as 90% in New York and 99% in Chicago--while many women took up work in the garment industry.
Many Italians also set up their own small businesses and lived alongside other immigrant communities in the cities they populated. In New York City, for example, Little Italy was situated near heavily Jewish neighborhoods, and Italian and Jewish children often went to school alongside each other while their parents worked alongside each other. Italian immigrants and their children quickly became involved in many fields.
Today, Americans of Italian ancestry are the fifth-largest ethnic group in the United States. Though Italian immigrants and their children became involved in many fields, we wanted to highlight some visual artists: the Piccirilli Brothers, six Italian brothers coming from a long line of stove carvers, carved some of the most significant marble sculptures in the U.S., most famously, the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. Some other Italian American artists include John Buscema, comic book artist whose work included The Avengers and The Silver Surfer, Louise Fili, a graphic designer whose work draws on her love of Italy, and Ettore DeGrazia, an artist of many mediums described as “the world’s most reproduced artist.”
Read more: The arrival of Italian immigrants, History of Italian immigration, Economic rise of Italian Americans in New York
New York City’s Little Italy, c. 1950
PC: Mondadori/Everett Collection
Mexican Immigration to the U.S.
Mexicans have lived in parts of the United States since before they were part of the United States; in fact, Mexicans left Texas after it was annexed by the U.S. in 1845. By the 1890s, Mexican immigrants began working in mining and agriculture in the U.S. Southwest. Mexican immigrants were exempted from U.S. immigration quotas. Although many immigrant groups faced xenophobia at this time period, Mexican immigrants were viewed slightly differently by Americans since they were seen as more likely to be temporary migrants and return to Mexico.
Mexican immigration was encouraged under the post-WWII Braceros program: guest-workers were wanted to resolve the agricultural labor shortages on American farms. During the 1965 Delano grape strike, which was sparked mostly by Filipino farmworkers, Mexican labor leaders and civil rights activists united with the strikers to create the United Farm Workers.
Today, Mexicans account for 25% of the foreign-born population of the U.S., the largest of any ethnic group. According to the 2010 Census, there are 31.7 million Mexican Americans living in the U.S. In the activist tradition of César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, some other Mexican American activists include Lorena Borjas, transgender and immigrant rights activist, Enrique Morones, founder and director of the human rights organization Border Angels, and Erika Guevera Rosas, human rights lawyer and Americas Director at Amnesty International.
Read more: A history of Mexican immigration, Braceros, “Dolores Huerta, the Civil Rights Icon”
Mexican agricultural workers employed under the Bracero Program in California, 1964.
PC: NBCNews/AP
Iranian Immigration to the U.S.
Iranian immigrants to the U.S. are a relatively new immigrant group in American history. Though the first recorded Iranian American arrived in New York c. 1867, the first major wave of Iranian immigration was not until almost a hundred years later in the mid-1950s, when Iranian students came to the U.S. to study at American universities and later stayed in the U.S. as refugees from the Iranian Revolution of 1979. A second major wave of Iranian immigration followed the revolution: the number of Iranian immigrants living in the U.S. doubled between 1980 and 1990. The third and most recent wave of Iranian immigration is ongoing since 1995.
The Iranian community in the U.S. is incredibly diverse within itself: there are Iranian Americans who also identify as Persian, Kurdish, Azerbaijanis, and Armenians, as well as Iranian Americans who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian, or non-religious. Iranian Americans have populated all fields of work, but in particular, shining in the business and tech world. Salar Kamangar, Google executive and former CEO of YouTube, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, and Parisa Tabriz, Director of Engineering at Google and “Security Princess,” are all Iranian American.
A majority of Iranian immigrants and Iranian Americans have settled in the state of California, which is also home to the metropolises with the highest concentrations of Iranian Americans (Los Angeles and San Francisco). The 2011 American Community Survey estimated the number of Americans with Iranian ancestry to be around 470,000, but many demographic experts believe the Iranian American population may be underrepresented due to Iranophobia in the U.S.
Read more: A statistical overview of Iranian immigrants in the U.S., A history of Iranian American immigration, “Iranian-Americans nurture new generations after revolution”, “Iranian in America”