fusimilation often means

learning languages
I
Tmmigranb arefinding that English is not alwaln the dominant language as Koreans speakspanish, Iatinos pick up Mandarin By Rachel Uranga
IOSANGELES DAILYNEWS

PublicAffairs at California State

University, Ios Angeles. "It's beginning to show up in more neighborhoods as they become dominated by languages other than En$ish." But the phenomenon is more market-driven than cultural. The

fortress

of

language

is

not

Peruvian immigrant Miguel

Aliaga always knewthat coming

to Los Angeles would mean a

language. He just never frgured that language would be Korean. In a city that lures some of the

long struggle mastering a new

crossed for love and friendship but for commerce. *Io an outside persor\ it loolis like something nice. There's an ethnic exchange going on. But

ttre redity is that

ifs

of necessity," said

lead organizerforthe l(orean Inr-

an erchange Nguyen, a

tracks the phenomenon, Itroups fish or direct them to canned worfting in immigrant communi- vegetables. Sq like thousands before hirn, ties around Lns Angeles can point to a handful of foreigners who he studied the language that assimilate by learning the domi- would prodde himwith the most nant language and sometimes economic opportunity. And it it isn't English. happened to be Korean. "At first it was about a job. Latinos working in Chinese restaurants learn Mandarin. Ko- When you understand Korean, reans running manufacturing there are more people that will warehouses speak Spanish. hire you, especially in restau"It's a multicultural society rants," he said. and part of multiculturalism is Now it's about culture. On his desk, he keeps a I(o-multilingualism," said Ali Modarres, associate director of the Ed- rean-language instruction book mund G. '?at" Brown Institute of arid a Korean-English dictionary

speaks three languages herself Clusters of immigrants are - English, Spanish and l(orean. "You would think that an imlearning that America is not as much about assimilating into an migrant coming to the U.S. would English-speaking world but into have to learn @nglish). The r+ a diverse immigrant culture, ality is that L.os Angeles is very where Koreans can speak Span- ethnically diverse. In rnany businesses fta1 immiFants are workish - and vice versa .At the beginning, Englishwas ing in the prinary langrragq spothere very important - and it still is, kenAliaga, isnt En$ish." stocked who foryears if I need to go to a govemment offrce or court or get a license," shelves at Korean-owned grocery Aliaga, 32, said as he sat behind stores, initially took Korean-lana small display case in his soc- guage classes at night school to get ahead and earn a pay raise. cer-supply shop in Koreatown. "For me, (learning Korean) is Most of his customers spoke litas important because I lived in tle or n6 English, and hiwanted Koreatown. Now I am able to to be one of the few Spanishspeaking employees whb could communicate with Koreans." While no agency officially help anstomers find just the right ring.

world's poorest, brightest and' migrant Worker's Advocate, who most ambitious immigrants, a works with dozens of bilingual strange phenomenon is occur- and trilingual immigrants and

studies l(orean history. Iast yeaq he visited South Korea for a soc-

ln some ways, it's no wonder Aliaga is so enamored of Korean customers. "It has influenced me. Kore- culture. It's the closest immigrant ans Eue so disciplined, if theY saY culture to him other than his they are going to do something. own. The Koredn woman who owns the store next door runs a I do the same,'he said.

that he reads while waiting for

like him tab for him, and ftom monring works in her shop till night. He knows all the store
owners around his own by name.

Most speak only Korean. So.on his downtime, Aliaga

cer convention. And he's nbw puiling together a plan to export the stacks of soccerjerseys. Across the cgunty, where a third of the residents are immigunts and nearly l00languages are spoken, these cultural exchanges occur, in sm?ll islys
every

day.

Eu-

Permanent residenfs' famities starck in lixnbo

ByTruong Phuoc Khanh
KNIGHT RIDDER

doesn't have residence in the

sumption of immigration," said Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular affairs. "It's incumbent on the applicant to prove their intent is not to immigrate." Last yea4 there were 946,142
U.S.,

"If I marry someone

Iwill

who

not be able to live with

her in the U.S.," said Maslov 30. "Five years wait is just too long." It's also too long for Guarav Negi, a soflware engineer at Cisco in Milpitas. Before he re-

ceived his green card

in July

ding day four years ago to

SAN JOSE

Since his weda

Guarav Negi
He may move to Canada so his fiancee can live with him after

young lady from his boyhood village in Bangladesh, Masud Syed has been back to see his wife exactly 10 times. The last visit, in September, was both exhilarat-

quarter of them were familysponsored and 155,330 - like Syed earned the privilege to stay permanently through employment.

new immigrants to the U.S.; a

2004, Negi had heard about the

they're married.

ing and excruciating. He witnessed the birth of his son; three

weeks later, Syed flew back to

America, alone. In a post Sept. l1 world, extremely long separations between newlyweds across continents is a fact of life for many

and my wife right in front of me

"I have a picture of my son

If Syed were in the U.S. as a foreign student or a temporary worker with an H-lB visa, and
he married overseas, his wife and

at work," said Syed, a 3l-yearold electrical engineer who lives in Sunnyvale. 'At the end of the day, I feel very empty. I call just to hear him cry anything."

children could almost immedi-

ately join him with a visitor's visa

immigrants who come to'the

United States to work. They end

IEE

since neitler spouse would have permanent privilege to stay in the United States. But since Syed became a per-

UniteFamilies has the back-

manent resident first and then

married a year late4, his wife and child wait 7,600 miles away and he dwells in Sunnyvale until her visa number is called.

up staying as permanent residents, but their hearts summon them back home when time
comes to choose a mate.

ing of four Bay Area congressional leaders. They co-sponsored a bill, HR-1823, that would

Many Asians, from India to

Korea to Vietnam, belong to cultures that still engage in the prac-

tice of arranged marriages. Instead of "love at first sight," some

call it "love after introduction." , But U.S. immigration laws do 'not allow permanent residents who marry afterthey obtain their "green cards," such as Syed, to have their spouses or children come stay with them in America while their green card applications are being processed. The wait time varies from country to country, but is currently, for India, China and the Philippines, about five years. A group started in the Bay Area in 2002 called, UniteFami-

allow families to live together in the United States while waiting for subsequent green cards. The bill was referred to a committee earlier this yea6 but with a conservative Republican majority in power a pro-immigration bill has little chance of coming to a vote. Supporting the bill, authored by Democratic Rep. Robert Andrews of New Jersey, are: Rep. Zoe Lofgren D-San Jose; Rep. Anna Eshoo; D-Palo Alto; Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell; and Pete Stark, D-Fremont.

marriage pitfalls for green card holders. At the time, he had no marriage plans. Then on a visit home to India in October 2004, his parents introduced him to 24-year-old Rohina. "She's not a technical girl," said Negi, 29, "but the thing is, I want to mar4r her.' He's seen his fiancee three times, and their wedding is planned for December. "In the U.S., marriage doesn't last five years," Negi said, "and now we have to wait five years to start our married life." Negi is now looking for an employer in Canada willing to sponsor him with a work visa.

"It's important for people to

take immigration laws into conevents," said Sharon Rummery a spokeswoman for the immi-

Asked which country his fiancee would prefe4 Negi replied:

sideration as they plan life

gration agency.

"She doesn't care, she just wants

to live with me.'

ttt

ports placing a priority on uniting nuclear families, it also wants

to restrict immigration to 300,000 people a year.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, is split on the issue. While it sup-

"They say people ought to

play bythe rules, but it ends with

"No one is stopping them,

from going back to their country to reunite with their spouse," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for
EAIR.

lies.org is working to spotlight what its members say is unreasonable immigration policy. Its
leaders protest that recent rules
leave thousands of legal, tax-pay-

way to do it.

absurd results sometimes," said Lofgfen. "It's an absurd situation, and one if people in the country realized, would say is a dumb

Under the Clinton administration, the Immigfation and Natura li zation Service implemented aVvisa program to allow certain.. spouses and minor children of

If you look at it

broadly, what public policy is be,

ing served here? None." Another way to gain entry to the United States, through the
State Departnent's visitor visa, is

ing U.S. residents in emotional

permanent residents to reside and work in the United States

while waiting for their own green

fween marriage and a green

card.

limbo, often forced to choose be.

workers with an H-18 visa, which allows them to become

Many in Syed's predicament come to the U.S. as temporary

all but impossible since the law requires applicants to prove they are not coming to stay. Anecdotally, many say as soon as they
disclose they are visiting a spot$e

cards. That program, created

specifically to clear a heavy INS backlog, has expired. The proposed bill would revive the V visa. Alex Maslov came to the U.S. in 1995 as a graduate student studying physics. Ten years late4 he's a researcher in nanotechnology for a company in Moun-

in the U.S. who is a permanent resident, their chances ofgetting

visitation rights are practically nil.

permanent residents once they

obtain a green card. Of the

spokeswoman

with

the

386,821 H-lB visas issued in the fiscal year 2004,152,723 were for workers from Asia.

State Department said the gov-

ernment primarily cares if your "visit" might become permanent.

year-old Linia, have forged

Thousands of miles apart, Syed says he and his wife, 24a

tain View. Now that he is a permanent

resident, Maslov said his hope to marry someone back home is

"You must overcome a prea

deep bond. The couple talks by phone at least five times a week.. She scolds him if he leaves for work without brealdast.

dim.

WHO THEY ARE AND WHY THEY COIVIE Alejandro Portes and Rub6n C. Rumbaut
The new woues of immigrotion to the United States are rapidly changing the social landscape of many metropolitan regions. The United States has olwoys prided itself on being a diaerse nation where the people of the world conaerge in search of opportunig and the freedom to realize their dreams. In recent yeors, howeaer, the sheer uolume of immigration to some areos, especially southern California, Florida, and the Northeast, has giuen rise to fears ofjob competition in some segments of the population. Ethnocentric people may resent the immigran*'"foreignness" and their initial failure to conform to conaentional codes of dress or speech. These reoctions are particularly noticeable in regions where there are relatiaely few immigronts. In the nation's larger urban centers, where generotions of immigration haue produced culturally diuerse populotions, there tends to be more tolerance and understanding of newcomers, but there too conflicts are common. Sociologists Alejandro Portes and Rubdn Rumbaut are among the nation's most respected scholars focusing on the new immigrotion. Their tDorh, as represented in this essoy, presents empirical data about the new immigrant groups. The sociological hnowledge they proaide helps reoders get bEond the stereotypes. Their worh also explores the impact of immigration on the regions and communities where the new immigrants settle. From immigrant families themselaes, the authors drau upon the strengths of their personal and sociological bachgrounds to select the most telling examples and situations in exploring the nature of the experience of settling into a new and uibrant society.

In Guadalajara, Juan Manuel Ferndndez worked as a mechanic in his uncle's repair shop making the equivalent of $150 per month. At thirty-two and after ten years on the job, he decided it was time to go into business on his own. The family, his uncle included, was willing to help, but capital for the new venture was scarce. Luisa, Juan's wife, owned a small corner grocery shop; when money ran out at the end of the month, she often fed the family off the store's shelves. The store was enough to sustain her and her children but not to capitalize her husband's project. For a while, it looked as if Juan would remain a worker for life. Today Juan owns his own auto repair shop, where he employs three other mechanics, two Mexicans and a Salvadoran. The shop is not in Guadalajara, however, but in Gary Indiana. The entire family-Luisa, the two children, and a brother-have resettled there. Luisa does not work any longer because she does not speak English and because income from her husband's business is enough to support the family. The children attend school and already speak better English than their parents.'They resist the idea of going back to Mexico. Juan crossed the border on his own near El Paso in 1979. No one stopped him, and he was able to head north toward a few distant cousins and the prospect of a factoryjob. To his surprise, he found one easily and at

the end of four months was getting double the minimum wage in steady employment. Almost every worker in the plant was Mexican, his foreman was Puerto Rican, and the language of work was uniforrnly Spanish. Three trips from Gary to Guadalajara during the next two years persuaded him that it made much better sense to move his business project north of the border. Guadalajara was teeming with repair shops of all sorts, and competition was fierce. "ln Gary," he said, "many Mexicans would not get their cars fixed because they did not

45

46

ClassicandContemporaryReadings

know how to bargain with an American mechanic." Sensing the opportunity, he cut remittances to Mexico and opened a local savings account instead. During his last trip, the "migra" (border patrol) stopped him shortly after crossing; that required a cosfly second attempt two days later with a hired "coyote" (smuggler). The incident put a stop to the commuting. Juan started fixing cars out of a shed in front of his banio home. Word got around that there was a reliable Spanish-speaking mechanic in the neighborhood. In a few months, he was able to rent an abandoned garage, buy some equipment, and eventually hire others. To stay in business, Juan has had to obtain a municipal permit and pay a fee. He pays his workers in cash, however, and neither deducts taxes from their wages nor contributes to Social Security for them. All transactions are informal and, for the most part, in cash. Juan and Luisa feel a great deal of nostalgia for Mexico, and both firmly intend to return. "ln this country, wete been able to move ahead economically, but it is not our own," she says. "The gringos will always consider us inferior." Their savings are not in the bank, as before the shop was rented, but in land in Guadalajara, a small house for his parents, and the goodwill of many relatives who receive periodic remittances. They figure that in ten years they will be able to return, although they worry about their children, who may be thoroughly Americanized by then. A more pressing problem is their lack of "papers" and the constant threat of deportation. Juan has devised ingenious ways to run the business, despite his illegal status, but it is a constant problem. A good part of his recent earnings is in the hands of an immigration lawyer downtown, who has promised to obtain papers for a resident's visa, so far without results. At age twenty-six, Nguyen Van Tran was a young lieutenant in the army of the Republic of South Vietnam when a strategic retreat order from the ARVN high command quickly turned into the final rout. Nguyen spent three years in Communist reeducation camps, all the while attempting to conceal his past as a skilled electronics technician. He finally got aboard a boat bound for Malaysia and after two more years in a refugee camp anived in Los Angeles in 1980. He had neither family nor friends in the city, but the government provided some resettlement aid and the opportunity to improve his English. At the end of a year, he had secured a job in a local electronics assembly plant, which brought in enough to support himself and his wife and child. Seeing this plant double in a single year, Nguyen realized the opportunities opening up in electronics. He enrolled in the local community college at night and graduated with an associate degree in computer science. He pooled his savings with another Vietnamese technician and a Chinese engineer and in 1983 launched his own firm. Two years later Integrated Circuits, Inc., employed approximately three hundred workers; most were not Asians, but undocumented Mexican women. In 1985, the company sold about $20 million worth of semiconductors and other equipment to the local IBM plant and other large firms. ICI has even started its own line of IBM-compatible personalcomputers, the Trantex, which has sold well so far in the local market. Nguyen, who is chairman of the company, sports a mustache, a sleek Mercedes, and a brand-new name, George Best. Perhaps for fear of the "protection gangs" re+reated by former Vietnamese policemen in Los Angeles, he has kept a low profile within the Vietnamese community. The name change is part of this approach. "Mr. Best" is not particularly nationalistic, nor does he dream of returning to Vietnam. He attributes his remarkable five-year ascent to hard work and a willingness to take risks. To underline the point, he has hung a large portrait of himself in his community college graduation gown behind his oversized desh He and his wife are already U.S. citizens. They vote Republican, and he has recently joined the local chamber of commerce.

Lilia Gonzi{lez-Fleites left Cuba at fifteen, sent alone by her formerly wealthy parents, who remained behind. The Catholic Welfare Agency received her in Miami, and she went to live with other refugee children in an orphanage in Kendall, Florida, until released to an aunt. She finished high school promptly and married, without her parents' consent, her boyfriend from Cuba, Tom6s. There was little work in Miami, and the young couple accepted an offer from the Cuban Refugee Center to resettle them, along with the rest of Tomiis's family, in North Carolina. Everyone found work in the tobacco and clothing factories except Lilia, whom Tom6s kept at home. At eighteen, the formerly pampered girl found herself a cook and maid for Tomd.s's entire family. By sheer luck, the same order of nuns who ran her private school in Havana had a college nearby. Lilia used her school connections to gain admittance with a small scholarship and found herself a parttime job.

t
i

P0RTES and RUMBAUT WhoTheyAreandWhyTheyCome

Those were hard years, working in one city and attending school in another. Tomds and Lilia rarely saw each other because he also decided to return to school while still working. At age thirty-nine, Lilia is today a successful Miami architect. Divorced from Tom6s, she has not remarried,

47

instead pursuing her professional career with single-minded determination. When Cuban refugees finally
abandoned their dreams of return, Lilia entered local politics, affiliating with the Republican parly. She ran for state office in 1986 but was defeated. Undaunted, she remains active in the party and has become increasingly prominent in south Florida political circles. More than an immigrant success story she sees herself at the beginning of a public career that will bridge the gap between the Anglo and Cuban communities in south Florida. Her unaccented English, fierce loyalty to her adopted country and ability to shift easily between languages and cultures bodes well for her political future. She will run again in 1988.

After finishing medical school, Amitar Ray confronted the prospect of working ad honorem in one of the few well-equipped hospitals in Bombay or moving to a job in the countryside and to quick obsolescence in his career. He opted instead for preparing and taking the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) examinations, administered at the local branch of the Indo-American Cultural Institute. He passed it on his second attempt. ln1972, there was a shortage of doctors in the United States and U.S. consulates were directed to facilitate the emigration of qualified physicians from abroad. Amitar and his wife, also a doctor, had little difficulty obtaining permanent residents'visas under the third preference of the U.S. immigration law, reserved for professionals of exceptional ability. He went on to specialize in anesthesiologr and completed his residence at a public hospital in Brooklyn. After four years, nostalgia and the hope that things had improved at home moved the Rays to go back to India with their young daughter, Rita. The trip strengthened their professional and family ties, but it also dispelled any doubts as to where their future was. Medical vacancies were rare and paid a fraction of what he earned as a resident in Brooklyn. More important, there were few opportunities to grow professionally because he would have had to combine several part-time jobs to earn a livelihood, leaving little time for study. At fifty-one, Amitar is now associate professor of anesthesiologr at a midwestern medical school; his wife has a local practice as an internist. Their combined income is in the six figures, affording them a very comfortable life-style. Their daughter is a senior at Bryn Mawr, and she plans to pursue a graduate degree in international relations. There are few Indian immigrants in the mid-sized city where the Rays live; thus, they have had to learn local ways in order to gain entry into American social circles. Their color is someiimes a banier to close contact with white middle-class families, but they have cultivated many friendships among the local faculty and medical community. Ties to India persist and are strengthened through periodic trips and the professional help the Rays are able to provide to colleagues back home. They have already sponsored the immigration of two brighi young physicians from their native city. More important, they make sure that information on new medical developments is relayed to a few selected specialists back home. However, there is little chance that they will return, even after retirement. Work and new local ties play a role in this, but the decisive factor is a thoroughly Americanized daughter whose present life and future have very little to do with India. Rita does not plan to marry soon; she is interested in Latin American politics, and her current goal is a career in the foreign service. After a lapse of half a century the United States has again become a country of immigration. In 1980, the foreign-born population reached 14.1 million or 6.2 percent of the total. Although a far cry from the situation sixty years earlier, when immigrants accounted for 13.2 percent of the American population, the impact of contemporary immigration is both significant and growing. Numerous books and articles have called attention to this revival and sought its causes-first in a booming American economy and second in the liberalized provisions of the 1965 immigration act. A common exercise is to compare this "new" immigration with the "01d" inflow at the turn of the century. Similarities include the predominantly urban destination of most newcomers, their concentration in a few port cities, and their willingness to accept the lowest paid jobs. Differences are more frequently stressed, however, for the "old" immigration was overwhelmingly European and white; but the
present inflow is, to a large extent, nonwhite and comes from countries of the Third World.

48

Classic and Contemporary Readings

The public image of contemporary immigration has been colored to a large extent by the Third World origins of most recent arrivals. Because the sending countries are generally poor, many Americans believe that the immigrants themselves are uniformly poor and uneducated. Their move is commonly portrayed as a oneway escape from hunger, want, and persecution and their arrival on U.S. shores as not too different from that of the tired, "huddled masses" that Emma Lazarus immortalized at the base of the Statue of Liberly. The "quality" of the newcomers and their chances for assimilation are sometimes portrayed as worse because of their nonEuropean past and the precarious legal status ofmany. The reality is very different. The four previous cases, each a composite of real-life orperiences, are certainly not representative of all recent immigrants. Clearly, not all newcomers are doctors or skilled mechanics, and fewer still become politicians or millionaires. Still, these are not isolated instances. Underneath its apparent uniformity, contemporary immigration features a bewildering variety of origins, return patterns, and modes of adaptation to American society. Never before has the United States received immigrants from so many countries, from such different social and economic backgrounds, and for so many reasons. Although pre-World War I European immigration was by no means homogeneous, the differences between successive waves of lrish, Italians, Jews, Greeks, and Poles often pale by comparison with the current diversity. For the same reason, theories coined in the wake of the Europeans' arrival at the turn ofthe century have been made obsolete by events during the last decades. Increasingly implausible, for example, is the view of a uniform assimilation process that different groups undergo in the course of several generations as a precondition for their social and economic advancement. There are today first-generation millionaires who speak broken English, foreign-born mayors of large cities, and top-flight immigrant engineers and scientists in the nation's research centers; there are also those, at the other extreme, who cannot even take the first step toward assimilation because of the insecurity linked to an uncertain legal status. . . . Many of the countries from which today's immigrants come have one of their largest cities in the United States. los Angeles' Mexican population is next in size to Mexico City, Monteney, and Guadalajara. Havana is not much Iarger than Cuban Miami, and Santo Domingo holds a precarious advantage over Dominican New Yorlc This is not the case for all groups; others, such as fuian Indians, Laotians, fugentines, and Brazilians, are more dispersed throughout the country. Reasons for both these differences and other characteristics of contemporary immigrant groups are not well known-in part because of the recency of their anival and in part because of the common expectation that their assimilation process would conform to the well-known European pattern. But immigrant America is a different place today from the America that emerged out of Ellis Island and grew up in the tenements of New York and Boston.

1. According to Alejandro Portes and Rub6n G. Rumbaut, how does the "new

immigration" to the United

States differ from earlier immigration? What does it mean when we say that immigrants are distributed unevenly throughout the United States?

YrEy
//

tofunerica
'klllftfil
following is a brief history of the people who can'le to
The

thgv

Came

tl'le United States from East Asia

China, Japan,

and Korea.

The earliest mass movement of Chinese immigrants to America happened in the middle of the 19th century. War and famine in the province of Canton led many Chinese men to leave their country for the "mountains of gold" in America. In 1848, gold was discovered in California, prompting a frantic "gold rush" in the United States. Thousands of people moved west to find riches. By the 1850s, gold t'ever had lured 20,000 Chinese men to San Francisco. They left China under contract to work for someone here, and with the understanding that they would return after their contracts expired. But many stayed on to work the gold fields for themselves. In addition, until about 1B70, American businesspeople actively sought Chinese contract called "coolies." These laborers were instn:mental in building laborers the railroads that linked the eastern and western parts of the United States. At the same time, they were treated harshly. They had no rights as citizens and were sorretimes treated ahnost as badly as siaves. B), the eall-v 1B00s, neaiiv 50i1,000 Chii:ese imrnigranis rvere livin$ on the inaintranc-l U.S. or in Hawaii. Burt in 1882, the U.S. governrnent Lroze Chinese immigraiion witir the Chinese Exclusion Act. Between 1BB2 and 1945, very t'ew Chinese immigrants entered the United States legally. They and all other Asians living here were the victims of prejudice and fear. Asians were called a "Yellow Peril" lvho would take away iobs from white Americans. After World War TWo, lltg-b-aU on Chinese immigration was loosened b""urrse-ehGrTid been allied with the U.S. in the war. In 1965, the immigration laws were loosened a{ain, and ever since then, approximately 25,000 Chinese immigrants have arrived here each year.

At the present time, there are more than 1.5 million people of Chinese ancestry in America. Many Chinese immigrants live in urban centers like San Francisco, New York, Los .Angeles, Chica$o, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The "Chinatowns" in San Francisco and I'Tew York began as bachelor settlemeni; because no Chinese women were allowed over as part of the first labor contracts. Instead, if a Chinese immi$rant wanted to get married, he had to travel back to China to find a wife. After 1BBB, the U.S. outlawed this practice, stating that if Chinese men returned to China, they would have to stai' there. QOn$g"g1tly, for a lon$ time the ratio of Chinese men to women in this country was 19lo 1.
Closing the door to Chinese immigration opened the door to a time Japanese immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed during were rapidly expandin$. *h"., farms in California andplantations in Hawaii that there Soon'after the act was passed in 1882, employers discovered planting and harvesting crops. In 1886, the ;;; shortage of laborirs for ^ B*p"-, of J"apan lifted a ban on emigration and betu,'ee. n that year and 2Q0*0Q0 gf 1!9se Ivi+, about gbo,ooo Japanese came to America. AbourIJ.S. mainland immiorants settled in Hawaii and 180,000 went to the coair frearly all of them became farmers, gardeners' Qr of other occupatic vegetable sellers because they were kept out ir"i, ""a first-generation Japanese immigrants wre''called

![!Efl

#tfi'?tnaW*,
.e

;;;il.

fh"r"

Fast Asia

Jryhy T.hgV Casere

toAxmerica
'remf
following is a brief, lnistory of ti'le people who canr'le to the United States
The

fnom East Asia

China, Japan,

and Korea.

The earliest mass movement of Chinese immigrants to America happened in the middle of the 19th century. \Var and famine in the province of Canton led many Chinese men to leave their country for the "mountains of gold" in America. In 1848, gold was discovered in Califolnia, prompting a frantic "gold n:sh" in the United States. Thousands of people moved west to find riches. By the 1850s, gold tever had lured 20,000 Chinese men to San Francisco. They left China under contract to work for someone here, and with the understanding that they rvould return after their contracts expired. But manlr stayed on to work the gold fields for themselves. In adclition, until about 1B70, American businesspeople actively sought Chinese eontract cailed "coolies." These laborers were instn-rmental in buildin$ laborers the railroads that linked the eastern and western parts of the United States. At the same time, they were trea'r-ed harshly. They had no rights as citizens and u'eie soineiimes iieated almost as bacil1' as siaves. Bj, the early 1800s, neaiiv 500.0iX) Chinese irnn:igranis r*iere living on the inainland U.S. ol in llaq'aii. Br-rt in 18S2, the U.S. go\/er nlrieirt froze Chinese immigrztiion .,riitir the Chinese Exclusion Act. Between 1BB2 and 7945, very few Chinese immigrants entered the United States legall-v. They and all other Asians living here rvere the victims of prejudice and fear. Asians were called a "l'ellorv Peril" lvho rvould take a$'ay jobs from white Americans. A-fte-,'World 1,\a1 Tw-o, qh9-!a4 on Chinese immigration was loosened bu.uus" Chitra had been allied n'ith the U.S. ln the war. In 1965, the immigration laws were loosened aiain, and ever since then, approximately 25,000 Chinese immigranls har,e arrirred here each year.

At the present time, there are more than 1.5 million people of Chinese ancestrv in -\merica. I{an_v Chinese immigrants live in urban centers hke San Francisco. Nen-)brk. Los ^\ngeles. Chicago, and l{onolulu, Hawaii. The "Chinatowns" in San Francisco and New Yorkbegan as bachelor settiementJ because no Chinese women were allowed over as part of the first labor contracts. Instead, if a Chinese immigrant wanled to get married, he had to travelback to China to find a wife. After 1888, the U.S. outlawed this practice, statin$ that if. Chinese men returned to Chin a, they would have to itay there. Qq$egugntly, for along time the tatio of. Chinese men to women in this country was 19 to'1.
Closing the door to Chinese immigration opened the door to during a time Japanese immi$ration. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed *h"r, farms in balifornia andplantations in Hawaii were rapidiy expandin$' there Soon'after the act was passed in 1882, employers discovered that harvestin$ crops. In 1886, the *u, u shorta$e of laborers for plantin$ and p*p"ro, of. Iapun lifted a ban on emigration and betwee. n that year and p)+,about ggo,ooo Japanese came to America.:\bcur.,2QQ,09O gf 149se mainland immiarants settled in Hawaii and 180,000 rvent to the lj.s. farmers, gardeners' Q{*";ifit6-f6"W;tCoasi. frearly all of them became Luit utrd vegetable sellers because they were kept out of other occupatic ;; ;hi,;.. fh"r" first_generation Japanese immigranrs w*,called

E[[[s

-c

Ea(f ASia

eeay K'fup3'ffmeeew
ceAeegwc-g*m
as $rocery stores and restaurants, olten in the poorest neighborhoods of a city. New Korean immigrants work together to improve their shops and move on to better locations. Korean imrnigrants have had to deal with hostility in their new country. The most visible portion of the Korean immi$rant group have faced bittei accusations those who own Srocery and other stores - they take from their local communities-and $ive nothin$ in return. that I(orean Americans have been victimized by both hostile blacks and whites. There have been well-documented conf'rontations stemming from cultural clashes and accusations of prejudice on both sides. But Koreans still immigrate to the U.S. in search of what one immi$rant calls "liberty, freedom, and security."

2a

East Asia

fl

Why Thpy ilame toAffrnerisa

followinE is a brief history of the people who carne to the United States from the Southeast Asia
PhilEppines, Vietnarn,
Laos, and Carnbodia.

The

The Philippines is a group of neariy 7,000 islands otT the southeast coast of Asia. In 7527, rhe Spanish explorer Ferdinand Uiagellan r,vas the first European to arrive at the island chain. Al'ter 50 years of fightlng, the Spanish conquered the isiands and named them lbr King Philip. From 1570 'ro 1898, the Spanish ruled the islands as a colony. In 1898, the United States took the Philippines f}om Spain after the Spanish-American War. Fo.r five years atter that, U.S. troops fbr-rght against Filipinos who wantedtheir countr)r '-to bd iqdJpf4qlgAr The U.S. Army gained control of the Philippines and mled iL-;52 colony. AJier nearly 40 years of reiative peace, World War Two began. During the war, Americans and Filipinos fou$ht together a$ainst the Japanese, who occupied the islands. Since 1907 , Filipinos have left their country for the United States in order to escAl-1e povci iy. At fii:st, mailv scttled in Ilau,aii, but sooir, tliev also irayeled to tfie prai1lald LT.S. Belr,eep 1907 alcl 1c)30, abor,rr 5(),()(X) Filipincs, most ol thenr agricultur-al noriiers, carlle io,\nrerica. Since \1brld \\Iar Tivo, thoi-isirncls of I,llipinos have immigrated to America. tVlany of them are professionais, especially doctors, nurses, and technicians. Filipinos have come here to escape poverty and the frequently unstable political situation in their home collntry, to become educated, and to find r,vork.

's.'n Los f4geles."Other 3be_bl$S!-nihplpppeP-u$1og.ig !t1e- United Sta!-es populations. However, people areas of the West Coast also have larfe Filipino of Filipino heritale are scattered throughout the U.S., mostly in urban areas.

Jebref OZ5,-!h
fro4g_gtrg-s-1c*o-p-gqig_s

ere,iuere-fevr"irrtmi=

!4_tbe pgited $tates. Today, there are more than Sants 700pO0. Nearly all these immigrants were refrigees -- that is, they fled their' colrntry because they were in danSer of losing their lives due to terrible wals and the unstable governments in their countries.

In 1975, Norlh Vietnam won a long and bitter war against South Vietnam and its ally, the United States. The North Vietnamese were led by communists who took over all of Vietnam. Because of this, thousands of Vietnamese left their country/ any way they could, bound for camps in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Soon, these refugees were taken in by countries all over the world, but mostly by the United States.

In 7976,

a group called the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. They treated

the people of Cambodia very cruelly. The violent upheavals in Vietnam and Cambodia led to unrest in Laos as well. Soon, a seeond wave of refu$ees lrom Cambodia and Laos escaped their countries and took the same route that Vietnamese refugees had taken to the U.S. and other countries.

41 Southeast Asia

ryryY Wtupr ffsseee

SwAgffiewfrca
All these refugees faced incredible hardships all along the way. They riskecl death escaping from their home countries, traveling in rickety boats that often capsized or were attacked by pirates. Once t thev had to wait Their .S. was also difficult. Culture clashes between the land they ln lefr and the one they came to created nlw challenges. Tbday, Southeast Asians are scattered in small settlements throt'hout the United States. Some are unable to read or speak English, while others are college students and successful businesspeople. Many of them are farmers, fishermen, and craftspeople.

42

Southeast Asia

lvftv ehgr Came SoAge?eria

following is a brief history of tire
The

Washington, where they took farming

At the turn of the century, a severe fouryear drou$ht hit the Punjab region of India. A,bout 7,000 residents of Punjab mostly Sikhs traveled to_ America. They settled on the West Coast in Californi a and
and loSiing jobs. The immigrants met a

irrrarigrant groups that can'le here frcnt Soutl'l Asia and tlre Middle East lndia" Pakistan, Armenia, Syria, and Lebanon-

lot of hostility, and laws directed at an immigrants kept their numbers down for
decades. In the meantime,, !*g_igdSpgndent countries were carved from India's rnainland Pakistan and eingladeift.-Unt i ttre 1960s, irnmigration quotas severely limited the number of immigrants that could come to the U.S. from most countries. That changed with the Immigration Aet of 1965, wliich eased quotas. As a result, more Asian Indians and Pakistanis made their way to the Uniied States. Today, there are slightly fewer than a million people of Asian Indian and Pakistani descent hving in the U.S. Many of them came lor an education and stayed on to fill the need for leighly-trained professionals in this colintnr. Some of these prolessionals go bacli to rheir native lancls, l;ut the nia-loritv stziv here and. l-.ecome citizens. Eetween 1900 ancl L9r4, nearlv !ryg p!li-o-ti-pe-9p-l*e*qJ.-Armenian descen_Llglre nassagqgd in rheir -homelan?S in no.th&u :t tikey, and more th-ffr30,000 Armenians came to America to escape persecution. The massacre started after some Arrnenians attempted to separate frcm Turkey and make an independent homeland. It continued as a ner,v Turkish government tried to "purify" its country of non-Turkish elements. This errent is call_ed "T!1g Gr:e"at lvlassacre," and it is the first example of gg-rlgp.ide in che 20th cerug-gy.-Genocide is the-or-gdnizeilTil-liiitof'ilHti; J"rr"i-c, i"figious, or racialpSuhtion. The Great Massacre is still a source of bitterness between the Armenians and the Turks. Today, there are an estimated 500,000 pecple of Arrnenian descent liv-

ffiffi

in! in the U.S.

There are more than trvo million fuab Americans in the United States. The numbers are not exact, however, because the thousands of Syrians andLebanese who moved here in the 19th and early 20th century came here with Turkish passports. l!UL.U-fp.! qtblyrggtd -L*gg_og_We;9 part of the Turkish empire, an{ u_n-Lil1941,-Lebanon was part ot'-pyFa. The do-minant rijligion in the Arab countries was, andleniains-;f6la;n, but the first Syrian/Lebanese immi$rants to this country r,vere Christians. They were rnembers of the Nlelkite and Vlaronite Rites of the Roman Catholic Church, or members of the Syrian Orthodox Chureh. Immigrants came here to escape s Turkish mle, and to practice their religion freely. ygqy oi lhe fi{st itrt from.Lebanon and Syria became peddlers. Door-to-door selling heiped improve their knowleagfif English. gv 19i9;tGre were an estimateaZOO,bOO Synan/ Lebanese in this country, many of them settled in New York City. Arab immigration has increased greatly since 1965. Now the dominant religion among Arab Americans is Islam. Lar{e Arab populations can be found in many large urbarffinters.

58

South Asia &

the Middle East

lYhy Thpy Came toArneriea

following is a brief history of tl're people who carne to the United States from Eastern Europe
The

Jewish immigrants to America did not come from country, but from many. The great majority of Jews rvho moved to one America came iiom Eastern Europe.

Russia; Hungary; Czechoslovakia;

Poland; Croatia, Serbia, and

Yr.rgoslav!a

In 1654, the first Jewish immi$rants to the United States arrived in what is now New York City. Jewish immigrants played a si$nificant role in the American Revolution and in helpin$ establish the U.S. $overnment after the war was over. The Jewish population in the U.S. remained low, however. Then from 1BB2 until_t-he beginnil gi-Wg44 W3r,Qqe, g-rore lha11 two n41hon-Jews cafre-Irom R;sTA w6at is-now Poiand, and other parts of Eastern Europe to settle in America. They came here to escape poverty and oppression. The governments of Austria-Hungary and Germany had political parties whose ideas were based on anti-Semitism, or hatred of the Jews. At the same iime, Rr-issia had larvs specificallv clesigiiecl to oppress Jews, zrncl thev ti,ere rhe vicrims of pogroms, or organized mob violence. N!9_1e_.thar1.7-1p_e_1.qgi- oi ihe .Jervs lvho emigratecl lvere tleeing pogloms. Jervish immigraiits lrorl Europe stopped-tiidt-In N-ew Yct?[ iity. l,tany stayed there, on New York's Lower East Side. Others left for other urban centers.

{the BaB[(ans]; and

Estocnia, [-itfituanoa" agtd Latvia (the

Baltics). ln addition, this section cov'ers the Jewish rnlgration which particularly involved Jews fron'l Eastern Europe.

in the 7920s, immigiration in general was virt'-rally ended in the llnited States. As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime rose to power, the Nazis began to systemaiically persecute the Jews. But even in the face of this persecution, t'ew German Jews were allowed into the United States. Nazi persecution would lead in World War Two to the Holocaust, during which six million European Jews were put to death.
The nation of Israel was established in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people. Many Jews from around the world moved there. However, outside of Israel, the United States remains the country with the lar$est Jewish population. In the 1800s, there were scattered Russian settlements on the West Coast and elsewhere in the United States. Then, in 7867 , the United States purchased the territory of Alaska from Russia, making the many Russians who lived in Alaska at the time subject to our nation's laws. Many of these Alaskans gave up their Russian citizenship andbecame Americans. The greatest inIlux of Russian immiSration began in 1880. Many of these immigrants were Jews. ptfre_r.g were Russian Gerrnan farmers,who followed theMennonite religionl'ihey settled in tlie Great Plains and brought ahardy with them. This whe,at !s now a s_taple agqlcultulal red bulgur wheat - in our nation. product
More Russians came here after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and the communist takeover in 1918. Many of them belon$ed to the nobility who were fleeing the new communist rulers in their native land. Russian immi$ration between the years 1924*andL976 was minimal. Durin$ that time, Russia was

ITlllHtl

69

Eastern Europe

BVfoy K'fuq,s-t ilmaaew

g-ap

"egEew###

the leading country of the Soviet Union, a grolrp of nations with communist governments. The Soviet Union and the United States were enemies, except during World War Two, when they were allied against Hitler's Germany. Nter World War Two, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were especially hostile to each other. In 1976, more than 100,000 Russian Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union, where they faced discrimination. Most of these Russian Jews moved to Israel, but about 10 percent of them entered the United States. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, more than 20,000 Russians have moved to the United States eaeh year. Tbday, more than four million people of Russian heritage live in the U.S. The number of Hungarian immigrants who came to this colrntry between 1870 and 1920 is not known. For most of these years, what is now Hungary was part of other countries, including Austria and Russia. The closest count shows that between half a million and two million Hungarian immi$rants came to America in those )rears. Hun$arians came here because of lvar and persecution in their own land. The immig,ranis lvho came here were a diverse cross-section of societl'. They,incl::dect aolility-highlv+rai{e",1 proi'essionals, scienti.sts, and laborers.
*-.#-"_

trtrffi^ffi

In 1956, about 200,000 Hungarian-s came to the U.S. as reflgEe_s. At that Eme, tfie-ifungarian-govdrnma;fma tri"a ;" get m";T;ao}- from the
Soviet Union, which had ruled Hungary since World War Two. The Soviets repressed any attempt at freedom by any country in their bloc, and some Hun5jarians revolted. The revolution was crushed and Hungarian refugees fled abroad.lvlost of them came to the U.S. Prior to 1920, when Czechoslovakia became an independent country, Czecjr Lr4migrants,to &lgfjga)ygqgelassfied aqAgSfr.Hgr-rgarians. It is estimaGd thaiperhaps 500,000 people of Czech descent came to America before 1920. Nlost of them traveled here in the last quarter of the 19th century to escape re dlE-ezechs t6o came leie-we?e-m-iners-or farmers, althougH many others settled in large urban centers in the Midwest and Southwest. Today, there are an estimated two miliion people of. Czech heritage in the U.S. Between five and 13 million people in the United States have some Polish ancestry. Peopie of Polish descent represent one of the largest ethnic groups in this country. Polish immigrants first came here in 1609, landing in Jamestown, Vir$nia. But it wasn't until 1795 that Polish people befan coming here in great numb"rs. ALlhell$Jbgt _"_gl,ls]!519gAu*d:r exibt; it was taken over by Austria, Pmssia, and Russj4. By the time of the Civil War, there were an e-ftim"aTeCl30,000'Polisii immigrants living here. After 1870, ahuge number of poor Polish immigrants streamed to the U.S. It is estimate d that about two million Poles - often listed as other nationalities came here between 1870 and 1900. Many of these immigrants were - Others were Catholic and Protestant. But all were fleein$ the almost Jews.

nFfiin

70

Eastern Europe

si '6'::-fr =\-.j g;ii;l;.f.

-.=

i,!.,r

constant stlu&|le among other nations to control their native land. Poland becarne an independent country 1n 1p20,.olily to be overrun by Ge-iftany in 1939 and by the Soviet Union after World War Two. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s that Poland again became independent. but not all of the Poles who moved here were very poor. They were laborers, miners, and farmers who settled throu$hout the country.
Most

The Balkan States of Croatia, Serbia, and Yugoslavia have historically been dominated by other countries. They were part of the

Turkish Ottoman empire in the 19th century, and then part of the AustroHungarian empire until 1918. From 1920-u-q!{l 19aQ, !h-g 5r4iign.gf YugosfeVia *^. un indcpenderrt stale. By tHtim;; uboiti zOb,OOb im."igtu"ii fro- ih" Balkan ie$ion had come to the U.S. When Yugoslayi4 o! jtS gr_dSp-qndence, 30 percent of these people moved back-to-tFei?-homeland. During World \l'ar Tu,o, the Balkans lvere taken over by Germany. A-fter \\rorld War Two, the countries rvere ruled by communist regimes (although they were not p.irt of tire Soviet Union). Immigrants liom this area were often counted as Austrians when they first moved here in the latter partof the 19th century, so an accurate count of their numbers here does not exist. They came to escape the repressive re$imes that dominated the Balkan countries, and to flee ethnic wartare among groups in their countries. fuIost of them settled in industrial centers where they worked in steel mills and other factory environmentsThe Baitic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have been ruled at various times by Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Germany. In the 19th century, they were controlled by Russia's czar. When the Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, the countries became independent. Eslia-121q=1!e_p-e1i9t U31og-s--e-i?.,94 the countries, and they didn't regeir th.eir in@p-efiderrce un-til 1992, wh.en=th-e=sotibTnni<Jn crumbled. The tiny nations have always been sought after by their neighbors because they border the Baltic Sea and have important harbors. Through it all, the coun-

tries have retained their own distinct cultures.

By 18B5, more than 15,000 Lithuanians had left their country for America. { &!t-Jgg5j4!%..1{eir numbers had swelled to more than 300pp;0 -Immigration fromLffi-iatras-E?en-siriancr,fin-3tili signifilAfAn Latvians "rfiili6d'-{000 They moved here in 1908 following an attempted revolution in their country. were followed by 30,000 more in the first two decades of the 20th century. Tbday, there are an estimated 1.5 million Americans of Lithuanian descent here, and an estimated 300,000 Americans of Latvian descent. Estonian immigration has been smaller still, with an estimated 100,000 Americans of Estonian descent in the U.S. today.

71

Eastern urope

Why thgf Came

toAmerica

The following is a brief history o'f the irnmigrant groups that canne here in large numbers fron'l

Most of the earliest settlers in North America came from England. north to south. These immi$rants came to America to forge a new way of lif'e. Some, like the Pilgrims, wanted religious freedom; others wanted the opportunities the new land offered, and still others came to escape imprisonment. The first U.S. censug.lilZgg5aidThe,r' ss111.d on the Eastern seaboard, from

|ffiil'ttGl

ancestry: Thbfe'is-ilfrai/"af ;iea of our p.esent way oFlif" iftf il; notb*""" *tauAhdlby the immigrants from England. The earliest English settlers
f,ave

thatT}percentgl.$":*?,]sml_llioassqplcj@rj_tj9trpI-tlh-gl_

Western Europe. The countries featured

in this section are England, lreland" Gerrnany, Austria,

'ti'leo

the country its language, many of its customs, and, eventually, its legal system and way of government. Between 1820 and today, more than five million more English citizens have immigrated. Today, 14 percent of the U.S. population traces its heritage to Great Britain.The irish didn't begin tireir mass migration to the United States r-urtil the 1840s, although the filst Li.S. censr',s in 1790 counted 200,000 peopie ol'Irish clescerrt ir.r this collrlrr\'. ll.e.trveen tZ9_qt1.1 lgli**railjer 7tlllS)
poor. The main reason so many people left Ireland was a disease that struck the potato crop, the food most people in Ireland depended on to live._l{_e_ar.}t one. millio-n people- stan ed because of the famine_F^rg_g*tg! by the failure of the poiato er,a Gtween"l846 tnd 1860;;A;liffi;;ituon Irish iriirlif-".op. gpnBm-aA'fif to America. Thousands of Irish immigrants came to America every year up until 1930. For the most part, thelr ss11l.6 in the large tirban centers of the East, gradually moving west. Because they had been povertystricken farmers, most of them had little or no money to start a new life in Arnerica. X{any of them settled in the poorest areas of a city and took any job they could [et. The men took laboring jobs and the women became maids and housekeepers. From the beginning, the new lrish immigrants took an interest in politics, especially on the local level. They saw politics as a way to help get themselves out of their desperate poverty. Nlan"v large cities soon had Irish political "machines"- that is, orlanized groups of politicians supported by the voles of their numerorls Irish constiilrents. Today, an estimated 1zl million people in the U.S. claim some Irish ancestry. German immigration to the U.S. began early. The 1790 census counted more than 200,000 German immigrants, or about 10 percent of the U.S. population. The Napoleonic Wars, fought from 1815, bro many more Ge nts here. tween 1820 anETffiO, nearly five m rmans came to the United States. Today in the U.S., close to 35 million people claim some German heritage. Thalmeans more people in

Siether!an'ds"

'tire Seas-idEnavian coun'tries" ltaly,

Spain" Portuagal,
Framce, and Greece.

5 ffi:fl f 'fi:is, ifl:*T:l'ff #

:

Alt[long['l imm!Erants did conne frorm other places in Western Europe, this unEt
foeuses on tlrese areas
because this is where

most innmigrants came frorn.

reffittllE

*:xgq1lgPrslge:Fe.q'.4ne9:Hlha-ri*q{y*o-:W German immigrants came here to escape poverty anillblitical upheaval.

Others came to escape religious persecution. In the middle part of the 19th century, Germany was not one country. It was divided into a number of smaller countries and even large landholdings. In the 1850s, the often-bloody

85 Western

Europe

'.i,;
-i'

,:,i": '.r. -.-

,::.,1

.ij, .&g

:--i'1, :.,,

,i:lL,T..: :-- r.r,:,,i +,:i -,i

r.-#;:;ijffi#

i-u

'i- :J_: i .i ,'r'

,f:i-ri.

Lj.o.

="*.t,, f-.
.i,
,.1

:; :1- :i-i:,t JS:.-"

:: -il-: :.': ::: '

'r..r., :;'E

#-:'i:

process of uni$'ing Germany into one collntry began. In addition, Germany fought wars with Austria and France to get more territory. By 1871, Ger:rnanv was a unified country. Btrt by this time, many Germans had left the lrrar.torn area for the United States. Nlany of the new inmigrants were f'armers, and others were artisans and craftspeople.

The true number of Austrian immigrants to the united States is not known. At one time, the Austro-Hun{arian empire consisted of Bohemia, Vloravia, Galicia, Serbia, Bosnia, Flungary, and Austria itself. When people from these countries cime here, they were all ciassified as Austrians by the Bureau of Immigration, even though they came from many dilTerent countries and had different ethnic and cultural heritages. Between 1901 and 1910, more than2.I million citizens from the Austro-Hunganan Empire came to the U.S. More than hall a million more followed in the decade fiom 1910 to 1920. NIost of them were poor, landless fairners who sought Lo lain economic relief and escape from a strict govemment. Others fled at the beginning of World \\rar One.
People ti-om the l.r'etherl:inds $.rei'e ar1lorlg the 1,er.r'

mffi

1625. Vlost of these early Dutg[-s_e'q!t9111v-e1_e--fur -traders, although settlers began far-rriiiig the m"w'A*ri"J;;;; i" iZaO:nr""y present-day names in the New York area are derived from the original Dutch names. They include Brooklyn (Breucken), Harlem (Niew Haarlem), and Flushing (Vliesingen). A second wave of Dutch immigrants came in the 1800s, escaping the Napoleonic Wars that put their country under French rule. Only about 400,000 Dr-rtch immigrants came to this country between 1820 and 7970.

first Eui-opean seltlers in che New'\vbrlci that woulcl become the Uniied Smtes. They came in the wake of Dutch explorer I-lenry Hudson's trip up the river that bears his name. They colonized New Amsterdam nolv New York City

in

The Scandinavian countries are Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Of these countries, Sr,veden has seirt the most immigrants to the U.S. Today, about 12 million Americans have sorne Swedish ancestry. In the years between 1870 and L920, more than a million Swedish immigrants came to America. They came to escape pgye-.rly and hunSer in Sweden, which had gong thiough a pefiod of ciolJ failures and massive unemplogme..nt. So many farmers and lumberjacks emigrated from sweden to the U.S. that they qtQ ei'edited.*ith clearing and pJowing more acres in America than there are-in all of Sweclen. The peakperiod for Swedish'immigrants to,qmeii;;;s

tro- [B75lo reqd\

-+---___J

Like the Swedes, most of the Norwegian settlers to the United States had in the 1840s, and their numbers rose throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. By 1910, about 800,000 Norlvegians had made America their home.
close ties to the land. They betan coming to America

87 Western Europe

Many of the Danish immi$rants to America also lvere farmers. By 1920, about 350,000 Danish citizens had moved to America. American citizenship was also extended to the 3,500 Danes living in the Danish West indies when the .i-l.S. ptrrchased those islands in 7917 and renamed them the Virgin Islands.

a:-.!.i y-+.:j .i;;'i.;r l; "f,

,!,, *-

3i/ 't r ''uri

,",\ -.---

'f-Iltt ' t""u r'e -\ r -l'f* -d-iir*-:-, -':'

4j

.4r't

'

'-i 'i-'t;!'-1- 1:;'l

r{- '' 'r

l: ;= .l; it;

'ut$,,i?'-1#3#rE'*{!
:,lll

:!:-:

jj

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In 1850, there were about s,000 rtalianimmigrants in the united States. By 1900, that number had swelled to more than 500,000.{+td*belwsert 1901 a4d 19,. Q, rpo19 lhan two,millioq lta,-liaas camehere. The majority of the Italian immigrants were poor, uneducated people from Southern ltaly. For decades they had lived with politlcal instability and the nuilrerous battles that were tought to unite Italy as one nation. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, and plant diseases also made lif'e miserable for many Itaiian citizens. And Italian peasants suffered under a system that did not allow them to own Iand and made them the heavily-ta,red tenants of rich landorwrers and the nobility. !\&en they came to America,Italian immigrants settled in the poorest parts of the nation's bi$;est cities. T$$"ggj!__ unskilled laborers and farg91_s-.pg1so_o".!*lgcame.plomineniiilZlfthe p1gbrelo*ls Today, more than 23 million Americans have sorn^e ltalianheritage.
The actual Spanish immi$rants who came here were, aircl are, felv. \\,hile those with Spanisir heritage in this collntry nilmber in iire miliions, almost all ot tirem came flom A,{exico ancl the other countiies ol Latin i\merica. Peopie rvith heritage from tire country of Spain itsel{ number under ahall million in the United States. But the Spanish influence on America is immense gglt:h.fgr"99q..f9.u1d9{ th9 fllst perr-qe.qent European. colony here in 1565 at St. Augustine,.Elo.ri_da F"fySSglglO and 1565, the Spaqls! ir*rodq.ced hor9e.g.9.1it1-e, 9-|e9g, 31$ p-iss lo Noth-,F:ITT

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About 500,000 Portu$uese immigrants have come to America since its discovery by European explorers. They settled mostly on lhe Eastern seaboard. Many people with Portuguese heritage are farmers and fishermen. The French were among the earliest explorers and settlers in the New World. Ivlany of the early immigrants settled in the southeastern part of the United States, around Florida and South Carolina. These settlements failed. Others settled around Louisiana, establishing New Orleans. Thousands aftel f.9,q5, yvben religioxs persecution of -F19t-r_"Lp-"a.p1g-.-c1l!_9..!q_4p-9lg*a F19ryfu rme to drove them to the New World But the greatest number of French came tr this s!-&e-e:-939*!--l*Y-Pb9r to *prk in the fur trade.-the fir:it Dfrtipxiln-??j2l6iau'6ilo*fifie a.ea around the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River was done by French missionaries and traders. Just before the Revolutionary War, in what is knosm as the French and Indian War, the English colonies fought the French for control of upper North America. This lvar was an extension of a conflict between France and England in Europe. The Dn$ish (and American) colonists won, and put an end to French colonization in America. However, the French still had strongholds in Canada, and today, the Canadian province of Quebec is a center of French culture. In 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana and a huge territory beyond it from Emperor Napoleon of France, making French settlers in the area American citizens. Today, about three million people in the U.S. claim some French herita$e.

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Rffi Greek immigration to the u.s. clidn't begin on alarlescale until the 1890s. Over the next 30lg35g_q,e_edy-_4qQS00.c19_9,\.j.q1mifa$!s,se!tled here. They ca;neTdrlsercT-poliilcat oppression, poverty brought on by crop I'ailures, and the desire to make enough money here to return home and start a family. Like many other immigrants, most of these early settlers never returned to their horneland. Instead, they brought their families over here. From 1920 to 1960, quotas kept Greek immigration low. But after 1965, immigration picked up afain. Today- an estimated three miliion people claim
some Greek heritage.

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The ancestors of most Alrican Americans are among the only immigrants to as this country who came here a$ainst their rvill. They came here as slaves property owned by landou'ners who forced the slaves to work for them. Slaves had no rights. In most places, it was a crjme for a slave to know how to read and wr-ite, their moverxents were severeiy restricted, and their families could be broken up at any time. The majority of black Americans can trace their oriSins to an area in West Ghana, fulali, and Songhai lrom about 300 to 1500 AD. During the early 1500s, European nations began a slave trade in which blachs from West A-frica were brought to the European colonies in the Americas.

unit focuses on who came to

United States
West Africa.

AJ'rica that was controlled by three empires

Slavery was not a new idea for people in many parts of the world. Africa was no e;iception. A-fricans had enslavecl othei. AJr-icans since ancient tiines. Iir mosi cilses, the siaves had beer captui:ed in walaird sold to Arab faclei:s in i'Jorthern 'Uriczr. But in the 1500s, the character and scope of tire siave iracle changed. Spain and Portugal became involved in the trade, fbllorryed in the 1600s by the Netherlands, En$and, and France. For the next 300 years, millions of A-fricans were forcibly shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to what are

now Latin America, the Caribbean islands, and the United States. The first blacks in the American colonies were brought in as indentured serwants. That meant they had to work fbr a master without wages for tbur or seven years, and then they were freed. But soon after that, Africans were denied even these rights, and they were forced to work lor their owners for life. By the early 1700s7 more than 200,000 slaves lived in the colonies. Nlost of these slaves lived in the South, where the fertile soil supported large farms, or plantations, that $rew rice, tobacco, sugar cane, and later on, cotton. The practice of kidnapping Africans and shipping them to America was banned in 1807, although the slave trade still thrived r,vithin the borders of the U.S. At the time of the ban, there were 700,000 slaves here; by 1860, there were four million.
AJter the Civil War, which was fought from 1861-1865 between the northern and southern United States, slaves were legally granted their freedom. At first, the former slaves had voting rights and other ri5frts enjoyed by most other Amedcans. But soon, laws were passed that kept them from havin$ the same rights as white people. These laws took away the right of most blacks to vote, and limited where they could eat, live, and go to school, among other things. Black Amedcans r,vere also the victims of racism and prejudice. Many of the restrictive laws and the worst violence happened in the South, where most A-frican Americans still lived. But unlike in slave days, African Americans could now move freely within the country. And many of them did. Between 1910 and ogslrrrsd, as African 1920, a vast mipration the "Great Mi$ration" - South for southern cities. Soon they moved farther Amerieans left the rural still, to northem cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. This migration continued throu$hout the 7920s,but tapered off during the 1930s.

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At that time, the nation
was suffering through the terrible economic times

called the Great Depression. After World War TWo ended in 7945, the migration began a}ain. A-friean Americans were atlracted by the large number of factory jobs in northern cities. They also hoped to escape some of the racism and discrimination they faced in the South. Unfortunately, many of them found that there was discrimination and prejudice in the Noith, as well.
Today, African Americans live in all parls of the country, although most live in larler cities. Their struggile for full econornic and political equality goes on.

106

West Africa

FhY rhpr Caneec t*Asnen"ia

following is a brief history of the people who came to the United States
The

frorn the Canibbean

area

The vast majority of cuban immigrants have come to the united States after 1959.In that time, well over one million Cubans have emigrated f'r'om their island nation, 90 miles from Florida. lzlost if not all of these people came here as refu$ees from Fidel Castro's communist government. It has been the policy of the United States to give shelter to all Cubans seeking entry into this country. However, in 1995, this policy underwent some changes, and the U.S. now wants to limit the number of Cubans that come here.

rem

the Eonrinican
Repniblic, and
. Puedo Rieo.

Cc.rba,

tlaiti,

In 1959,

IVir. Castro overthrew

the regime of Fulgencio Batista. The first Cuban

refugees were the allies of ivlr. Batista, marry of them business executives,

industry leaders, and people with close ties to the United States. These people believed that their time in the U.S. would be short. They were confident that Mr. Castro would be thrown out of office himself. But a 796I invasion of Cuba called lhe Bav of Figs failed, ancl led to the emigration of another 150,000 Cubans. N'lan-.; of these irnmigrantl; il,ere doctors, lartyers, teachers, skiiled lvorkers, and businesspeople. People emigrated steaclilv until aiter the Criban fulissile Crisis in L962, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union a-lmost went to war over the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. AJter the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles, Mr. Castro closed all air traffic between Cuba and the U.S. From 1962 to the 1970s, Cuban immigrants left the island in boats or rafts. The situation changed in the 1970s, when NIr. Castro authorized "Freedom Flights" in airplanes for those who wished to leave the country. It changed again in 1980, when Mr. Castro allowed more than 100,000 Cubans to leave in what was called the "Mariel Boatlift." In the 1980s and 1990s, the exodus continues, as many Cubans flee to the U.S. in boats and rafts, or with the help of relatives already here.
andthe Dominican Republic share an island called Hispaniola. Harti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Christopher Columbus explored Hispaniola in 1492, and claimed it for Spain. Shortly after Spanish colonists reached the island, they moved to where the Dominican was claimed by Haiti Republic now is, and the other half of the island France. Both countries imported slaves from West A-frica to farm sugar cane and coffee, because almost all of the enslaved natives on the island died. In L797, the slaves revolted. Their leader, Toussaint I-lOuverrure, took over the entire island. France and Spain regained control of their colonies in 1801, but another revolt expelied them in 1822.Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic set up their own $overnments. From the 1950s through the early 1990s, Haiti was ruled by cruel dictators who 6iathered much of the existing wealth for themselves. In the 1970s and 1980s, many Haitian people tried to escape the repressive political system and terrible poverty of their nation. They left their nation for other Caribbean, Central American, and South American nations, arld for the U.S. The first mostly workin$ in medicine Haitian immigrants here lvere professionals years now, poor people have attempted to leave and the law. But for many the country, along with those in dan$er from the $overnment.

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In 1990, a repressive regime was overthrown and Jean-Bertrand A-istide, a lormer Catholic priest, was chosen president of Haiti in the countty's first free
election. But eight months after IVIr. A'istide took office, he r.vas ousted by some members of the military. From that point in 1991 unt1l 1994, when he was returned to oflice through efforts of the United States, thousands of Haitians tried to escape their country. Most of them left in ricliety boats, and many died trying to reach other lands. Nlany were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. \\4ien Nir. Aristide was returned to por,ver, the flight of the boat people stopped, but many Haitians r,vho had already fled did not want to return to their country. About 15,000 Haitians were kept at ttre base, waiting either for their return to Haiti, or their admission to the U.S.

Like Haiti, the Dominican Republic's history is spotted with oppression and dictators. The early years saw the Dominican Republic side of Hispaniola colonized by the Spanish. After Hispaniola gained its independence in 1822, dictatcrs ancl rnilitar-v strongmen ruled both sides of the islancl. In 1965, clictator RaiaelTrtililio wuis assassiirated. U.S. iVlarines \,vent to the isiald tc restore order. ljince 1965, thousands of immi$rzrnts ii-om the Dominican Republic have moved to the United States. A,iost of them come here to escape the poverty that dominates the entire island of Hispaniola. The Dominicans who first carne to this country r,vere professionals looking to advance their careers. Later immi$rants were poorer. fu{any of the immigrants settled inlarse urban centers- Today, there are iarge setilements of recent immigrants from the Dominican Republic in New York City and Chicago. Strictly speaking, Puerto Ricans who come to the United States are nct immigrants. They are citizens of the UniteC States. in 1898, the U.S. took possession of Puerto Rico from Spain followin$ the SpanishAmerican War. In 1977,Puerto Rico was $ranted a special "Commonwealth" status that provided U.S. citizenship to all residents of the island. By 1930, more than 50,000 Puerto Ricans had moved to the mainland, most of them settlinS in New York City. After World War TWo ended in 1945, mi$ration to the U.S. boomed. Puerto Rico had problems with overpopulation, underemployment, and poverfy. Improvement in air travel and inexpensive one-way tiekets to the mainland helped brin$ about the first airborne mi$ration in history of people from one land to another. By 1955, an estimated 675,000 Puerto Ricans were living on the mainland, with an estimated 500,000living in New York City. By 1980, two million people of Puerto Rican descent were livin$ on the U.S. mainland. Today, there are an estimated2.T mtllion Puerto Ricans livinS here. Puerto Ricans have faced racism and unemplo).rnent here. And until recently, they have not been politically powerful because they haven't been organized. Many of the Puerto Ricans who moved here after t'orld War Two dreamed of going back to their homel and alter they earned enough money. Tbday, many Puerto Ricans feel that the mairiland U.S. is their home.
123 The Caribbean lslands

Wh;r TERFy Caraee to AnnnerE*a

ml5ffiI Viore immigrants come to the United States lrom Nlexico than from any other single country. Census estimates say there are more than 13 million people of lvlexican descent living in the United States. These 13 million are the bigest share of America's fastest $rowin$ ethnic $roup Latinos. Latinos are people r,vhose families came ori$inally from aLatin American nation. There are an estimated 27 mlllion Latinos livin$ in the U.S. a little more than 10 percent of the total population.
The majority of l4exican immigrants have colne here for two main reasons. The first is to leave behind unstable or dangerous political situations in their home country. The second is to escape poverty and find work in this country. The first Mexicans to live within the boundaries of the United States were not imrnigr:ants at all. Thelr qrere members of Spanish-descended families living in territories taken from Niexico atter a $,ar in the 1840s. Tire present states of Texas, Califbrnia, Nevacla, Utah, and parts of Artzona, Ner,v Nfexico, attcl Colorado, once all belonged to Niexico. &iany par-ts of this arid re$ion n'ere settled by Mexicans. Anglo Americans copied many Mexican rvays of living on this dry land. For example, the Southwest's "ranch culture'- maintaining large tracts of land to raise livestock and tending the land with ranch hands came directly from the lvlexican system. Aoglo Americans also and cowboys - farmtnf techniques copied Mexican
U.S. authorities have long had an indecisive attitude toward actual Nlexican immigrants. On the one hand, for decades the U.S. encoura$ed Nlexicans to become migrant workers, so they could help farm and perform other tasks.

The following is a brief history of the people who carne to the United States frorn lMexico,

Nicaragua,
EI Salvadon and Guatemala.

Migrant workers move from place to place, harvestin$ crops as they ripen. On the other hand, the U.S. has tried to discourage the actual settlement of these workers here. All throu$h the last part of the 19th and the eatly patt of the 20th century, poor Nlexicans were recruited to work in mines, on farms, and on railroads in the Southwest. It was understood that these workers would eventually go back to Mexico, although there was no law stopping them from takin$ up permanent residence in the United States. Many of them did. Before L924, Mexicans and Americans freely crossed the border separating the two countries. In1924, a U.S. border patrol was established, but with only 75 guards for 2,000 miles, it was ineffective.

In 1930, there were one million Mexicans livin$ here. Most of them held migrant or other low-payin$ jobs. By 7940, that number had dropped to less than 400,000 because of hard economic times in this country and around the world. By 1942,with the U.S. involved in World War Two, abracero, or "hired
hand," program encoura$ed Mexican workers to come back here a$ain. The program was put into place to fix a labor shorta$e that $rew in the u.s. as millions of men were drafted into the military. The braeerq.b-i6*am continued until 1965, and in that time millions of Mexician mi$rant Worliers entered

136 Mexico & fantral America

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the country to follow the crop harwests, and then ieft again. But many other migrants established homes in the United States. Some found work in factories. Others $ot service jobs, like housecleanin6i, restaurant work, maintenance work, and other low- or semi-skilled jobs. Still others started their own businesses. N{any people of Mexican descent live in large cities throughout the country. However, most Nlexican Americans live in California, Texas, the other Southwestern states, and Iilinois. Mexicans and other Latinos are the objects of the latest debates about immigration in this country. Right now, about 800,000 immigrants are allowed to legally enter the U.S. each year. It is estimatedthat another 400,000 enter illegally, and most of these illegal immigrants are Latino. Lawmakers and others in Californiahave often called for strengthening the border patrol system between Mexico and the U.S. In 7994, voters in California passed a referendum called Proposition 187, which called for cutting off social and medical services to illegal immigrants and theii' chilclren. At the same time, X4exican and other Latino immigrants fili an iirrportant role in California's economv, as thev do in Texas and other Southwestern staies. L{osr experis ihink the cluestion of imrnigration from Niexico to the U.S. will continue to spark political debate into the next century.

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Significant immigration from these three countries began in the 1970s and continued through the 1980s. Most immigrants from these countries came here because of bitter political strife in their home countries. The exact number of Guatemalan, Nicara$uan, and Salvadoran immi$rants to this country is unknolvn, because rnarry of them came lvithout documentation or as refu$ees. Niany of these refugees hid their identities to avoid being sent back to their countries. Estimates say that from 500,000 to two miilion people came to the U.S. from these three countries. As the political situations in their countries have stabilized, many of them have returned home, although a significant number remain in the IJ.S.

In 1979, the unrest that}'ad been brewing for alon{ time reached a climax
in Nicaragua. The Sandinista rebel group forced Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the harsh leader of Nicaragua, into exiie and took over the country. The United States opposed the revolution, saying that the Sandinistas were communists. The U.S. supported the "Contras." The Contras were anticommunists and members of Mr. Somoza's National Guard. They began attacking I'{icaragua from the neighboring country of Honduras. The Sandinistas had been supported by most of the people of Nicaragua in their fight against NIr. Somoza. But their program of social reform was not fully accepted. Soon, alarge portion of the Nicaraguan people supported the Contras. From 1980 to 1988, Nicaragua was in the grip of a civil war. Many thousands of people were killed on both sides. To escape the war, hundreds of thousands more left the country many of them for the these refugees settled in cities in the southern United States. A number of and northeastern U.S.
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