1. Immigration

4. This chart shows which
Europeans came to the United
States.

5. This chart shows
the largest
ancestries that
make up the
population of the
United States.

6. The Demographer’s Toolbox
Demography is the study of the
characteristics of human
populations.
A census is a straightforward
count of the number of people in a
country, region, or city.
Population experts employ data
sources like vital records, which
is a report of births, deaths,
marriages, divorces, and the
incidence of certain infectious
diseases.
No census is entirely
comprehensive (or
comprehensible). All censuses
tend to under-represent
nonmainstream kinds of
households, as well as homeless
individuals.
Federal funding can have a real
impact on peoples’ lives.

7. Mobility and Migration
• Mobility may be used to
describe a wide array of
human movement, ranging
from a journey to work to an
ocean-spanning permanent
move.
– Emigration and immigration
– International migration and
internal migration
– Push factors vs. pull factors
– Voluntary migration vs. forced
migration
– Refugees, IDPs, guest workers,
and transnational migrants

8. Immigration
• The action of coming to live permanently
in a foreign country.
• Synonyms migration - emigration

9. Emigration
• emigration
• migration from a place (especially
migration from your native country in
order to settle in another).
• wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

10. Internal Migration
• internal migration
• Movements of persons within a nation’s
geographical boundaries, involving a
change in usual place of residence

11. International Migration
• International migration occurs when
peoples cross national boundaries and
stay in the host state for some minimum
length of time.

12. Push and Pull Factors

13. Push and Pull Factors
• Definition: The push factor involves a force
which acts to drive people away from a place
and the pull factor is what draws them to a new
location.
• There are many economic, social and physical
reasons why people emigrate, and they can
usually be classified into push and pull factors.
Push factors are those associated with the area
of origin, while pull factors are those that are
associated with the area of destination.

14. Push and Pull Factors: Economic
• Pull Factors
• Economic motives loom large in all human movements, but are particularly important
with regards to migration. Better economic opportunities, more jobs, and the promise
of a better life often pull people towards a new country. Sometimes this is encouraged
by the destination country, such as the employment campaign in the Caribbean by
London bus companies in the 1960s, which actively recruited young men to move to
London to work as bus drivers, often followed by their families. Another example
might be the ‘brain drain’ to America that occurred in the latter half of the 20th
Century from several other Western nations.
• Push Factors
• Economic push factors tend to be the exact reversal of the pull factors; a lack of
economic opportunity and jobs tend to push people to look out of their area of origin
for their futures. An example of this is the migration of Mexicans and people from
other Central American countries into the United States of America, where they often
work low-wage, long-hour jobs in farming, construction and domestic labour. It is
difficult to classify this case purely with push factors however, as often the factors
associated with the country of origin are just as important as the factors associated
with the country of destination.
Forced migration has also been used for economic gain, such as the 20 million men,
women and children who were forcibly carried as slaves to the Americas between the
16th and 18th Centuries.

15. Push and Pull Factors
• Social Factors
Sometimes there are social pull factors in
migration, for example the principles of religious
tolerance that the United States of America was
founded on, which attracted religious refugees
such as the Mennonites, who settled in
Pennsylvania, but more often migration caused
by social factors is a push, such as active
religious persecution, as it was in the case of the
Huguenots in 16th Century France, the Puritans
in 17th England, and the Jewish refugees from
Nazi Germany.

16. Push and Pull Factors
• Physical/Environmental Factors
Under physical factors we are not including things like
the promise of fertile lands that prompted the Westward
migration across the United States in the 19th Century,
more the physical factors that have compelled people to
seek safety elsewhere. A prime example would be the
mass exodus from the island of Montserrat leading up to
the eruption of the La Soufriere Hills volcano in 1995,
which led to two thirds of the population abandoning the
island. (N.B. do not confuse the La Soufriere Hills
volcano on Montserrat with La Soufriere on the island of
Saint Vincent, or La Grande Soufriere on the island of
Basse-Terre)

17. Definition
• Assimilation-The process whereby a
minority group gradually adopts the
customs and attitudes of the prevailing
culture.

18. Waves of Immigration
• 1st
Wave 1600’s-1820’s: NW Europeans, mostly English,
French, Dutch, German, also includes African Americans
• 2nd
Wave 1840’s-1890’s: West & Central Europeans,
mostly Irish and German, Scandinavian
• 3rd
Wave 1890’s-1918: South and East Europeans,
mostly Italian, Greek, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, many
Jewish people
• 4th
Wave 1918-Present: Latin America including Mexico
• 5th
Wave 1950’s-Present: Asian including Chinese,
Korean, Vietnamese, Pilipino, Indian Asians, and Pacific
Islanders

19. Waves of Immigration

20. Immigrants as a Percent of US
Population

21. Waves of Immigration

22. Europe

23. Germans in America
• 50,764,352 Americans
– 17.1% of the US
population (2006)
– the largest ancestry
group in the United
States

24. Germans in America
• The first significant numbers arrived in the
1680s in New York and Pennsylvania
– Some eight million German immigrants
entered the United States since then

25. Germans in America
• The largest number of
arrivals came 1840–1900
– Some came looking for
religious or political freedom,
others for economic
opportunities greater than
those in Europe, and others
simply for the chance for a
fresh start in the New World.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Stueben
Hero of the Revolutionary War

26. German immigrants boarding a ship for America in the late 19th century.

27. Germans in America
• push factors: worsening opportunities for farm
ownership in central Europe, persecution of some
religious groups, and military conscription;
• pull factors: better economic conditions in the U.S.
(especially the opportunity for farmers to own
land).
PARKING METER CHECKER
STANDS BY HIS POLICE VEHICLE
WHICH IS IMPRINTED WITH THE
GERMAN WORD FOR POLICE
(POLIZEI). IT IS PART OF THE
TOWN'S RETURN TO GERMAN
ETHNIC ORIGINS. NEW ULM,
MINNESOTA, WAS FOUNDED IN
1854 BY A GROUP OF GERMAN
IMMIGRANTS.

28. Persons of German Ancestry
• California and
Pennsylvania
have the largest
populations of
German origin,
with over six
million German
Americans
residing in the two
states alone.

29. Germans in America
• Germans have contributed to a vast
number of areas in American culture and
technology
• German settlers brought the Christmas
tree custom to the United States
• The influence of German cuisine is seen in
the cuisine of the United States throughout
the country, especially regarding pastries,
meats and sausages, and above all, beer.

30. Germans in America
• Frankfurters (or
"wieners", originating
from Frankfurt and
Vienna, respectively),
hamburgers, bratwurst,
sauerkraut, and strudel
are common dishes.
• Germans have almost
totally dominated the
beer industry since 1850
• German bakers
introduced the pretzel.
German newspapers in North
America 1922

31. German Culture in America
• The influence of German cuisine is
strongest is the small town Midwest.
– Among larger cities, Cincinnati is known for its
German American annual festival Zinzinnati,
and Milwaukee is known for German Fest.
• The two are among the largest German American
festivals in the country.
• Oktoberfest, German-American Day and
Von Steuben Day celebrations are held
regularly throughout the country.

33. Irish in America
• Irish Americans are citizens of
the United States who can trace their
ancestry to Ireland.
• A total of 36,278,332 Americans—
estimated at 11.9% of the total population
—reported Irish ancestry in the
2008 American Community
Survey conducted by the U.S. Census
Bureau. Roughly another 3.5 million (or
about another 1.2% of Americans)
identified more specifically with Scotch-
Irish ancestry.
• The Irish diaspora population in the
United States is roughly six times the
modern population of Ireland.

34. Irish in America
• The Irish diaspora population in the United
States is roughly six times the modern
population of Ireland.

35. Irish in America
• The Irish are widely dispersed in
terms of geography,
and demographics.
• Irish American political leaders
have played a major role in local
and national politics since before
the American Revolutionary War:
eight Irish Americans signed
the United States Declaration of
Independence, and twenty-
two American Presidents,
from Andrew Jackson to Barack
Obama, have been at least partly
of Irish ancestry.

36. Irish in America

37. Irish in America
• Approximately "50,000 to
100,000 Irishmen, over 75
percent of them Catholic,
came to America in the
1600s, while 100,000
more Irish Catholics
arrived in the 1700s."
• Indentured servitude was
an especially common
way of affording migration,
and in the 1740s the Irish
made up nine out of ten
indentured servants in
some colonial regions.

38. Irish in America
• Most colonial settlers coming from the Irish
province of Ulster came to be known in America
as the "Scotch-Irish".
• The Scotch-Irish settled mainly in the colonial
"back country" of the Appalachian
Mountain region, and became the prominent
ethnic strain in the culture that developed there.

39. Irish in America
• Irish immigrants of this period participated
in significant numbers in the American
Revolution, leading one British major
general to testify at the House of
Commons that "half the rebel Continental
Army were from Ireland

40. Irish in America
• Irish immigration had greatly increased beginning in the
1820s due to the need for labor in canal building,
lumbering, and civil construction works in
the Northeast. The large Erie Canal project was one
such example where Irishmen were many of the
laborers. Small but tight communities developed in
growing cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, New
York and Providence.

41. Irish in America
• From 1820 to 1860, 1,956,557
Irish arrived, 75% of these after
the Great Irish Famine (or The
Great Hunger, Irish: An Gorta
Mór) of 1845–1852, struck.
• Of the total Irish immigrants to
the U.S. from 1820 to 1860,
many died crossing the ocean
due to disease and dismal
conditions of what became
known as coffin ships

42. Irish in America
• Most Irish immigrants to the United States
during this period favored large cities
because they could create their own
communities for support and protection in
a new environment.
• Another reason for this trend was that
many Irish immigrants could not afford to
move inland and had to settle close to the
ports at which they arrived.

43. Irish in America
• Cities with large numbers of Irish immigrants
included Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, as
well
as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, St.
Louis, St. Paul, San Francisco, and Los
Angeles.
• In 1910, there were more people in New York
City of Irish heritage than Dublin's whole
population, and even today, many of these cities
still retain a substantial Irish American
community.

44. Irish in America
• Mill towns such as Lawrence, Lowell,
and Pawtucket attracted many Irish women in
particular.
• The best urban economic opportunities for
unskilled Irish women and men included “factory
and millwork, domestic service, and the physical
labor of public work projects.”

45. Irish in America

46. Irish in
America

47. Irish in America• The annual celebration
of Saint Patrick's Day is a
widely recognized symbol of
the Irish presence in
America.
• The largest celebration of
the holiday takes place in
New York, where the
annual St. Patrick's Day
Parade draws an average
of two million people.
• The second-largest
celebration is held in
Boston. The South Boston
Parade, is one the nation's
oldest dating back to 1737.

49. Italians in America
• 17,235,187 Americans
– 5.6% of the US population
(2005)
• Most immigration from Italy
occurred between 1880 and
1960.
– There were also smaller waves
of Italian immigration in 1848
and 1861 after failed
revolutionary movements

50. Italians in America
• The main factor in Italian
immigration was a poor
economy in Italy,
particularly in the southern
regions.
• Italians settled in and
dominated specific
neighborhoods (often
called "Little Italy") where
they could interact with
one another, establish a
familiar cultural presence,
and find favorite foods.

51. Italians in America
• Not all Italians left for economic reasons,
– Some prosperous Italians came to America
adventure and prosperous opportunities
– Some also left because of political reasons
(especially in the 1930’s)

52. Italians in America
• Italian immigrants usually
arrived with very little cash or
cultural capital (that is, they
were not educated or
intellectually sophisticated)
and generally performed
manual labor.
• Their neighborhoods were
typically slums with
overcrowded tenements and
poor sanitation.
– Tuberculosis was rampant.

53. Italians in America
• Italian immigration
peaked from 1900 until
1914, when World War I
made such
intercontinental
movement impossible.
– In many cases, the Italian
immigrants were subjected
to severe anti-Catholic,
anti-immigrant
discrimination and even
violence such as lynching.

54. Italian Ancestry (2009)

55. Italian Culture
• Many Italian
Americans still
retain aspects of
their culture.
• This includes Italian
food, drink, art,
Roman
Catholicism, annual
Italian American
feasts and a strong
commitment to
extended family.
Italian Festival Hoboken, NJ

56. Italians in America
• In movies that deal
with cultural issues,
Italian American
words and lingo are
sometimes spoken by
the characters.
– Although most will not
speak Italian fluently, a
dialect of sorts has
arisen among Italian
Americans, particularly
in the urban Northeast,
often popularized in
film and television.

57. Italians in America
• Among the most characteristic and popular of
Italian American cultural contributions has been
their feasts.
– Throughout the United States, wherever one may find
an "Italian neighborhood" one can find festive
celebrations such as the well known Feast of San
Gennaro in New York City, the unique Our Lady of
Mount Carmel "Giglio" Feast in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn, New York, the Ciciarata in
Ambler, Pennsylvania or the lesser known Festa
Italiana, in Seattle. The Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Festival has been celebrated annually in Hammonton,
New Jersey for over 125 years.

58. Mulberry Street, along which Manhattan's Little Italy is centered. Lower East Side, circa
1900

59. This sign appeared in post offices and in
government buildings during World War II.
The sign designates Japanese, German,
and Italian, the languages of the Axis powers,
as enemy languages.
What Happened to the Languages?

60. Latin America

61. Mexican Americans
• Mexican Americans are citizens and/or
residents of the United States of Mexican
ancestry
• Mexican Americans account for 9% of the
country's population
• About 26.8 million Americans have listed
their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006

62. Mexican Americans
• Mexican Americans trace their ancestry to
Mexico and many different European
countries, especially Spain, which was its
colonial ruler for over three centuries

63. Mexican Americans
• Most Mexican American
settlement concentrations
are found in metropolitan
and rural areas across the
United States, with the
highest concentrations in
the Southwest, and the
Midwest. Los Angeles,
Albuquerque, Phoenix, San
Diego, Houston, Santa
Ana, Dallas, El Paso and
San Antonio are particular
areas for large Mexican
American communities.

65. Mexican Immigration
• Mexican American
history is wide-ranging,
spanning more than four
hundred years and
varying from region to
region within the United
States
• In 1900, there were
slightly more than
500,000 Latinos living in
New Mexico, California
and Texas.

66. Mexican Americans
• Most were Mexican Americans who
arrived in the Southwest in the mid 1800s
while others were descendants of
Mexican, Spanish, and other hispanicized
European settlers who arrived in the
Southwest during Spanish and Mexican
colonial times
– Approximately ten percent of the current
Mexican American population can trace their
lineage back to these early colonial settlers

67. Mexican Americans
• Since 1900, there have been many uprisings, failed revolutions, and
failed economic policies that have been HUGE push factors in
Mexican immigration
• The US has also offered work, both legal and not so legal, in the
form of government programs and shady backdoor deals, which
have been big PULL factors
– Since 1900, millions of Mexican nationals have immigrated to the US
– The largest wave is probably occurring right now.

68. Map of Los Angeles County showing percentage of population self-identified
as Mexican in ancestry or national origin by census tracts. Heaviest
concentrations are in East L.A, Echo Lake/Silver Lake, South Central, San
Fernando and San Pedro/Wilmington.

69. Mexican Americans
• Pew Hispanic Center estimated the
undocumented population ranged from 11.5 to
12 million individuals.
– Pew estimated that 57% of this population comes
from Mexico; 24% from Central America and, to a
lesser extent, South America; 9% from Asia; 6% from
Europe, and the remaining 4% from elsewhere.

70. Mexican Americans
• People become illegal immigrants in one
of three ways: entering without
authorization or inspection, staying
beyond the authorized period after legal
entry, or by violating the terms of legal
entry
• The continuing practice of hiring
unauthorized workers has been referred to
as “the magnet for illegal immigration.”

71. Mexican Americans
• Illegal hiring has not been prosecuted
aggressively in recent years: between 1999 and
2003, according to the Washington Post, “work-
site enforcement operations were scaled back
95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, which subsequently was merged into
the Homeland Security Department. Major
Illegal employers have included:
– Wal-Mart, Swift & Co. (meat), Tyson Foods (chicken
processing)

72. Mexican Influence on Culture
• Nationally more salsa than catsup is
purchased now
• Border Culture
– Mexican influence on culture near the US-
Mexican Border
• Our area is subject to this influence
• It can be seen in the food we eat, the words that
we use in our dialect, and in music and TV
– The farther north you travel, the less the border
influences culture

73. Cinco de Mayo
• May 5
• Celebrates “Mexican
Independence”
• An Americanized holiday-
September 16th
is actually
Mexico’s Independence
Day
• Celebrated all of the US
as a day of Mexican
heritage and pride

74. Asia

75. Asian Americans
• An Asian American is
generally defined as a
person of Asian
ancestry and American
citizenship
– group of people in the
United States who can
trace their ancestry to
one or more countries in
Asia
• 15,000,000 people in
America or close to 5%
of the population

76. Asian Americans
• In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of
Saint Malo in the bayous of current-day Louisiana, after
fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there
were no Filipino women with them, the Manilamen, as
they were known, married Cajun and Native American
women.

77. Asian Americans
• Chinese sailors first came to Hawaii in 1778, the same
year that Captain James Cook came upon the island.
Many settled and married Hawaiian women.
– Some Island-born Chinese can claim to be 7th generation.
– Most Chinese, Korean and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii
arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar
plantations.
– Later, Filipinos also came to work as laborers, attracted by the
job opportunities, although they were limited.

78. Asian Americans
• Numerous Chinese and
Japanese began immigrating to
the U.S. in the mid-19th century
for work,
– Many of the immigrants worked
as laborers on the
transcontinental railroad. A
surge in Asian immigration in
the late 19th century caused
some Americans to fear the
change represented by the
growing number of Asians.
This fear was referred to as the
"yellow peril." The United
States passed laws such as
Asian Exclusion Act and
Chinese Exclusion Act to limit
Asian immigration
Top Chinese Railroad
Workers, Left,
Cucamonga China
House, Bottom China
House

80. World War II
• During World War
II, the United States
government
declared Japanese
Americans a risk to
national security
and undertook the
Japanese
Americans
Internment,

81. World War II
• This controversial action forced the relocation of
approximately 110,000 Japanese and Japanese
Americans, taking them from the west coast of the
United States to hastily constructed War Relocation
Centers in remote portions of the nation's interior.
Manzanar War Relocation Camp Owens Valley, CA

82. World War II
• This shameful chapter in US history was a
result of war hysteria, racial discrimination,
and economic competition. Sixty-two
percent of those forced to relocate were
United States citizens. Starting in 1990,
the government paid some reparations to
the surviving internees in recognition of
the harm it had caused them and their
families.

83. World War II
• Despite the internment, many
Japanese American men
served in World War II in the
American forces. The 442nd
Regimental Combat
Team/100th Infantry Battalion,
composed of Japanese
Americans, is the most highly
decorated unit in U.S. military
history. The 442nd/100th fought
valiantly in the European
Theater even as many of their
families remained in the
detention camps stateside. The
100th was one of the first units
to liberate the Nazi
extermination camp at Dachau.

84. Asian Americans
• The largest ethnic subgroups are:
1. Filipinos (4.0 million),
2. Chinese (2.8M),
3. Asia Indians (1.9M),
4. Vietnamese (1.5M),
5. Koreans (1.2M) ,
6. Japanese (1.1M).
Other sizable groups are Cambodians (206,000),
Pakistanis (204,000), Laotians (198,000), Hmong
(186,000), and Thais (150,000)

86. Africa

87. Stereotypes
• In the 1890-1920 period Italian Americans were often
stereotyped as being "violent" and "controlled by the
Mafia". In the 1920s, many Americans used the Sacco
and Vanzetti trial, in which two Italian anarchists were
wrongly sentenced to death, to denounce Italian
immigrants as anarchists and criminals.
• During the 1800s and early 20th century, Italian
Americans were one of the most likely groups to be
lynched. In 1891, eleven Italian immigrants in New
Orleans were lynched due to their ethnicity and suspicion
of being involved in the Mafia. This was the largest mass
lynching in US history.

88. • Irish Catholics were popular targets for stereotyping in
the 19th century. According to historian George Potter,
the media often stereotyped the Irish in America as
being boss-controlled, violent (both among themselves
and with those of other ethnic groups), voting illegally,
prone to alcoholism and dependent on street gangs that
were often violent or criminal.

89. North America