Handout Notes

Notes from pages 84 and 85 of the handout. About 80 million people migrated to the United States between 1820 and 2015, including 42 million who were alive in 2015. The United Sates has had three main eras of immigration:

1. Colonial settlement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

2. Mass European immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

3. Asian and Latin American immigration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries

In 1790, the first census after independence, America's population was a mere 3.9 million people, including 950,000 of whom had immigrated to one of the colonies now part of the United States. Between 1820 and 1920, approximately 32 million people immigrated to the United States. 90% being from Europe. For European migrants the US offered a great opportunity for economic success. Among these European nations, Germany has sent the largest number of immigrants, at 7.2 million, Other major sources include Italy, 5.4 million; United Kingdom, 5.3 million; Ireland, 4.8 million; and Russia and the Former Soviet Union; 4.1 million. 1/4 of Americans trace their ancestry back to German immigrants and 1/8 each to Ireland and English immigrants. Immigration dropped sharply in the 1930's and 40's due to the Great Depression and World War 2. But, the number steadily increased in the 50's, then surging to historically high levels. Around 13 million Latin Americans have migrated to the US in the past half century along with 7 million Asians. Officially, Mexico passed Germany in 2006 as the country that has sent the most immigrants to the United States, ever. Although the locations from which the immigrants come from has changed the reason has virtually remained the same, rapid population growth limiting prospects for economic advance at home. Sadly, the United States is no longer the sparsely-populated, economically booming nation it once was.