Immigration in the United States

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Immigration in the United States
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Immigration to the United States from 1789 to
1930 made the U.S. what it is today. Considered
the melting pot of the world, the U.S. incurred
immigration from many countries around the world,
especially from Europe.
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Many immigrants came as whole families. Others
came one at a time and sent for other family
members as they could afford it.
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Immigration began in force in the late 1700s /
early 1800s. Scotch-Irish were some of the
first immigrants to settle in the new United
States. These immigrants settled west of the
Appalachian Mountains in an area known as the
back country. They settled in this area to take
advantage of farming opportunities. Since then,
the Irish have been one of the top immigrating
groups to our country. Below is a picture of
Irish immigrants in the early 1900s.
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Swedish immigrants began arriving in the United
States during the early and middle 1800s. These
immigrants brought with them skilled trades, such
as carpentry and furniture-making. Swedish
workers would make a major impact on woodworking
and other construction skills for years to come.
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Eastern and southern European immigrants began
arriving in the United States in the middle
1800s and early 1900s. Italians became one of
the first southern European immigrant groups to
migrate to the United States. The skills and
expertise they brought with them included
stone-masonry, which can be seen today in the
numerous churches across the eastern and middle
United States.
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German immigrants originally came to the United
States to take advantage of the abundance of land
and the opportunity to farm, both in food crops
and dairy products. They also contributed to
scientific research and technological advances.
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We have already discussed some of the
contributions of the early immigrants to the
United States. Can you think of any other
contributions that these immigrants made to our
country?
STOP!!!
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Now we will look at more recent immigrants from
other parts of the world, like Latin America,
Asia, and Africa.
We have discussed the earlier immigrants to the
United States, which included people from
European countries.
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One of the more prominent immigrant groups from
Asia included the Chinese. In the middle 1800s,
mass numbers of Chinese immigrants came to the
United States, helping to build the
Transcontinental Railroad and taking advantage of
mining opportunities in the West.
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Latin Americans, especially people from Mexico,
have made a major impact on the population of the
United States, as well as the U.S. workforce.
Mexican Americans are highly concentrated in
service jobs, as well as labor-intensive farming
jobs. They are also heavily involved in
commercial and residential construction. Their
numbers have made them one of the top-growing
immigrant groups in recent years. Currently,
immigration legislation has been proposed to
naturalize many of the illegal immigrants coming
from Mexico.
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The earliest Africans to arrive in this country
were not immigrants, but were brought as slaves
in the late-1600s, into the 1700s. These
individuals were part of the Triangular Trade,
which initially brought labor to the Caribbean
islands, in exchange for Caribbean goods. As the
southern United States developed agriculturally,
slaves were then brought to work on rice and
cotton plantations. This use of man labor could
be considered to be one of the greatest
injustices committed against people coming to the
U.S.
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In more recent times, Africans have immigrated to
the United States in professional capacities,
such as doctors, teachers, etc. They have also
had a major impact in the passage of civil rights
laws, setting a precedent for all immigrants.
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Can you think of some of the additional
contributions made to our country by the Asians,
Latin Americans, and Africans?
STOP!!!
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Next we will look at some graphs and charts that
illustrate immigration trends in the United
States
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The U.S. entered the 20th century during a period
of massive change. Many social and economic
changes were sweeping the country, and immigrants
saw many opportunities and freedoms in the United
States that they could not pass up.
Which immigrant group had the largest increase
from 1900-1990?
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In 40 years, between 1880 and 1920, more than 20
million people came to the United States.
Although most immigrants came from Europe, many
came from Asia.
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Irish immigrants came to the U.S., starting in
the early 1800s. This graph shows the number of
Irish immigrants to the U.S. from 1825 to 1890.
Can you think of possible causes for the peak in
Irish immigration in the 1850s?
the building of railroads in the U.S.
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Today we have discussed some of the major
immigrant groups that have come to our country.
Each group came for similar reasons of
opportunities for freedom and prosperity, yet
each group made a unique contribution to the
growth and development of the United States.
These groups continue to make major contributions
to the continued success of the American peoplea
diversity of people united for the cause of a
better life. Now its your turn to think
about yourselves. What ethnic group(s) do you
descend from? What contributions has your group
made for the betterment of the U.S.?
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Resources http//memory.loc.gov/learn/features/por
t/start.html www.ilw.com/articles/2006,0823-bartle
tt.shtm www.cairco.org/data/data_us.html www.theip
inionsjournal.com www.nyu.edu/.../2006/12/immigrat
ion_to.html www.everyculture.com www.constitutionc
enter.org/.../cw08_12150.html teachers.henrico.k12
.va.us/.../urbanization.html www.cartoonstock.com/
.../illegal_immigration.asp www.historycooperative
.org/.../39.1/frese.html