Talk:History of immigration to the United States

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 January 2019 and 24 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nicoleriver.

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Colonial era Spanish and French settlements
Let's not neglect the colonial era Spanish and French settlements. Rmhermen 21:22, Jan 9, 2004 (UTC)

Something to consider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_to_the_United_States

I love all the Sources but None do 1 thing. The numbers go up and down and never Total. Its asif we killed all those before and they are no longer immigrants. Nationalized yes. But did we EAT them or what? Its a point that I make to others about this. That Without Immigrants the USA population would be BELOW 200 million, and probably Allot lower. Its an aside, to add to the data you have received. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EdCAsh0 (talk • contribs) 20:14, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Some edits
Among various edits, I removed this bit: The British crown tried to prevent Spanish immigration in Florida, and San Agustín was destroyed or plundered several times by pirates at the service of the crown or by the British army, though it was located in territory belonging to the Spanish Crown. The English/Briish attacks on Spanish Florida were not an attempt "to prevent Spanish immigration", which never amounted to much anyway. They were done during times of war because Spanish Florida was enemy territory weakly held and within reach. A larger concern than Spanish immigration to Florida was Spanish-allied Indian tribes with the power to threaten English colonies. Another reason was that Indians captured in "just war" could be enslaved, which is what happened to nearly all of Spanish Florida's Indians by 1720 or so.

The section titled "Population and immigration AD 1600-1790" is very long and seems to jump from topic to topic in a confusing way. Perhaps it would be useful to use subsections to address the various topics? Pfly (talk) 06:05, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Looking for info
I am looking for good info here63.226.130.156 (talk) 22:39, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

White ethnic
I think the article should mention the issue of so-called White ethnics. Even Catholics who were very Caucasian such as the Flemish, French, Irish and Hungarian were stereotyped along ethnic lines because it was presumed that only WASPs were truly white. This is one of the chief causes of the nativism phenomenon, where only the Dutch, German, Scandinavian and British were fully qualified for immigration because of ethnic quotas. ADM (talk) 18:01, 2 April 2009 (UTC)
 * "it was presumed" ?? I think not. let's name an actual person who presumed this. Note that 30-50% of the Dutch and Gemran immigrants were Catholic. Rjensen (talk) 22:11, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Split into multiple articles?
It seems strange to me that the "History of immigration to the United States" article contains information dating back to 15,000 BC. Would it not be appropriate to relegate all immigration history before 1776 AD to a "History of immigration to North America" article, with a small paragraph at the top of the US-centric article linking to that one? —h3h (talk) 17:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Melting pot metaphor used in 1875
The melting pot metaphor was in use in 1875, as this quote proves. "The fusing process goes on as in a blast-furnace; one generation, a single year even-- transforms the English, the German, the Irish emigrant into an American. Uniform institutions, ideas, language, the influence of the majority, bring us soon to a similar complexion; the individuality of the immigrant, almost even his traits of race and religion, fuse down in the democratic alembic like chips of brass thrown into the melting pot." (nb "alembic" = glass jar) source: article by Titus Munson Coan, " A New Country" The Galaxy Volume 0019 Issue 4 (April 1875) p. 463 online Rjensen (talk) 01:39, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

First Law was in 1798
The Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 was the first law trying to regulate immigrants. The new Arizona law regulates immigrants (after they arrive), but NOT immigration (= process of arrival) --subtle difference but legally important since only Feds can pass law on immigration. Rjensen (talk) 23:22, 2 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with the important part of what you are saying - about Arizona. I respectfully differ about the Acts of 1798 regulating immigration per se. The country's borders, personnel, etc. just weren't set up for that. People just walked over the border whenever they felt like it. And yes, the laws regulated them, once they were located. If they were located. And essentially those laws were eventually nullified. While this was not the gist of your argument, it did apply to other, otherwise unrelated material in the article. Which is why I am answering! :)  Student7 (talk) 01:57, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The Alien and Sedition acts of 1798 (there were four of them and one is still in effect) regulated immigrants inside the US, just as the Arizona law does. In 1798 the only way to get to the US was to come by ship, and that was controlled by the customs system in effect. (walking in from Canada or Florida was possible but very difficult). Rjensen (talk) 10:57, 5 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't disagree with what you are saying. However, regulating aliens inside the country is different than regulating actual immigration, per se. A bit harder to do BTW which is why actual laws regulating immigration were passed. But much later. Student7 (talk) 11:15, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Indian and Chinese
I removed text which implied that the US had "heavy" immigration from China and India in the 21st century. The numbers given were 1 million each, not really a large number. Secondly, these numbers are pretty well eclipsed by Central American immigration, legal and illegal of 10s of millions. Another editor had cited "bias" in the text. It's much worse than that! It contradicts all logic! Even worse, it was uncited. Student7 (talk) 17:29, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Poor essay
I deleted a long, rambling, poorly sourced, poorly thought out essay that is full of mistakes. for example:
 * Americans’ preference of old immigration rather than new immigration reflected a sudden rise in conservatism. when-where-who-no RS, etc. It's not true. People like the steel and coal executives preferred the new immigrants.
 * Before the “flood” which occurred in the 1870s was a period called “old” immigration. "flood" is POV and it started in the 1880s and is badly wriotten, with later events coming before earlier ones.
 *  Since most of them, with the exception of the Irish, had Anglo-Saxon or Protestant backgrounds not true (half the Germans were Catholics)
 * they were quickly incorporated into American society, welcomed into the "asylum of liberty." POV writing; the Irish and Germans did not quickly assimilate and the Irish were not welcomed.
 * beginning in 1870, “new” immigration began, with large numbers of people arriving from eastern and southern Europe as well as Asia, Russia, and Japan. began in 1880, included few from Asia or Japan, Russia is part of eastern Europe,
 * The unfortunate circumstances that the new immigrants arrived in made their image even worse. They came to the new urban America, where disease, overcrowding and crime festered. badly written--did they bring these bad conditions or were the conditions merely waiting to happen?
 * relations became openly hostile not true. The companies hired them off the boat. Inter-group violence was rare (only the Chinese were violently attacked, and in a few cases in the South the Italians)
 * many Americans becoming anti-immigrant well these anti-immigrant folks were union leaders and Irishmen, themselves recent arrivals
 * and so on. Simply a poor essay. Rjensen (talk) 11:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for deleting the essay which seems to be a pov elaboration of the first paragraph. The essay was followed by material that maybe we should consider reinstating. At least one was linked if not referenced. The chronology seemed sound:


 * Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924, which was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. All "extra" immigration to the United States was precluded, including Jews fleeing Nazi German persecution.


 * In 1924, quotas were set for European immigrants so that no more than 2% of the 1890 immigrant stocks were allowed into America. In addition, Congress passed a literacy act in 1917 to curb the influx of low-skilled immigrants from entering the country.


 * {This seems to ramble a bit but maybe has some basis}:


 * Immigration restrictions laws passed in the 1920s tried to achieve four goals: reduce drastically the number of unskilled immigrants; favor uniting of families by giving preferences to relatives; keeping the ethnic distribution stable by allocating quotas to various ethnic groups; with no quotas initially set for Mexico and Latin America because of the ongoing Mexican Revolution. In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were about 500,000 Hispanics.Latinos and the Changing Face of America - Population Reference Bureau


 * (I am less sure of the following which seems to have some basis in reality but would like to see WP:RELY first:


 * The Mexican Revolution of 1911-1929 killed an estimated one million Mexicans and drove at least a million refugees temporarily into the U.S. Many returned in the 1920s or 1930s. The recorded immigration was 219,000 from 1910–1920 and 459,000 from 1920 to 1930.  Because of the porous border and the poor or non-existent records from this time period, the real numbers may be higher. This recorded number of Mexican immigrants drops to only 23,000 from the decade of 1930 to 1940. Indeed 100,000s returned during the Great Depression either voluntarily or with some U.S. persuasion. Student7 (talk) 17:02, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

Rewritten article
We seem to have a rewritten article by an IP editor without any editorial summaries. It is okay to revert over my later edits BTW. I did not notice the preceding ones. Student7 (talk) 15:54, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Massive Plagiarism
Massive sections of this article (including the majority of the "Immigration 1790 to 1849" section) have been taken word-for-word from a 2008 post on america.gov. Could someone address this, I am not able to? Icefall5 (talk) 02:14, 13 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The changes were introduced Nov 22, 2010 by an anonymous editor. The fact that it appears to have come from a U.S. government website may have led to the assumption that it was public domain material but the named author may argue against that. Rmhermen (talk) 05:03, 13 September 2011 (UTC)
 * the essay was written by a leading scholar (Hasia Diner) and published by the US government, with no copyright notice. Normally that means public domain/no copyright. (it appears to be work for hire by the US government). In any case I have rewritten much of it and it now appears that little of Diner's original text survives. Rjensen (talk) 09:36, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Conflicting information?
these statements seem to disagree. anyone know more?

Shortly after the U.S. Civil War, some states started to pass their own immigration laws, which prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in 1875 that immigration was a federal responsibility.[29]

Prior to 1890, the individual states, rather than the Federal government, regulated immigration into the United States.[31] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.209.106.80 (talk) 22:37, 1 May 2012 (UTC)


 * It's useful to point it out. The Supreme Court can say anything it wants. It may or may not be enforced by the executive branch(es). Apparently that was done in 1875. Congress finally came to grips with it in 1890, 15 years later. In the meantime, the Supreme Court had the states on notice that their own immigration laws would probably be overturned. Student7 (talk) 19:56, 6 May 2012 (UTC)


 * This needs to be explained clearly in the article.Rscragun (talk) 13:07, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Unnecessary quotation marks in lead
The way you are using quotes here is unnatural and close to being weasel-words:
 * much of the latter "illegal."

If you must qualify illegal, you could use words like "illegal at the time" or "deemed illegal." --139.78.253.106 (talk) 13:39, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Galicia
This article doesn't even mention a region from which about a million people came to America. Read more at Poverty_in_Austrian_Galicia. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 08:37, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Removed vandalism
Took out words, "stupid people' and "monkey butts" in section discussing 1600 immigrants. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.120.90 (talk) 15:56, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Statistics of modern Korean immigration = zero?
In the table of immigration compiled from census data, Korean immigration says zero, but I think this is obviously wrong. Could somebody provide the correct data? The source link is out of date, and one can retrieve old data from Internet Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110602183103/http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/ but, these data show numbers up until 1960. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Buverf (talk • contribs) 12:34, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed. It was some very old vandalism. Rmhermen (talk) 17:39, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Conflicting/unclear information in 1820-1830 paragraph?
The Immigration 1790 to 1849 section has a paragraph that is extremely unclear. It says


 * ...immigration totaled 8,385 in 1820, with immigration totals gradually increasing to 23,322 by the year 1830; for the 1820s decade immigration more than doubled to 143,000.

Is this comparing 1820 to 1830 and then comparing 1810--1820 (a period for which data are not reported) to 1820--1830? Rscragun (talk) 13:17, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Immigration Law
A section focused on Immigration Law would be intensely relevant and helpful. Currently the section "Destinations" has much of this information. But a Destination is irrelevant to questions such as (1) when were immigration laws first instituted? (2) did immigration laws relate to the addition of new territories? (2) how did immigration laws change over time? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Karin D. E. Everett (talk • contribs) 00:03, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

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New Section: 1990s...
Hello all. I added this new section after the section titled "1980s". I felt it was necessary to provide some information into IIRIRA which was a major piece of immigration legislation in the later half of the 20th century. Wikipedia does have a start level class page dedicated to this piece of legislation; however, I felt that it would be beneficial to add it to this page since it encompasses the history of US immigration. I specifically focused on IIRIRA's changes to illegal immigration and the asylum process. Scholarly resources were used to support the information. As this is my first Wiki contribution, I am certainly open to feedback. Cheers. Nicoleriver (talk) 10:42, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Southern colonies
Why the bloop does this section make it seem like slaves came voluntarily??? Ah yes a period of servitude then freedom!!

This is poor writing at best and mad mad mad historical revision at worst. --TheSeer (TalkˑContribs) 05:54, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

I have edited this section, adding new material and references, which should help reduce the likelihood of such misimpressions. Desirable further improvements might include adding a new separate section of this article to focus on the Atlantic Slave trade to North America, and specifically including African slaves in lists such as the one for ethnic groups. Slave trading was a distinct -and certainly anything but praiseworthy- form of immigration, but African slaves brought against their will to America were undeniably immigrants, by any broad objective definition: like most other historical immigrants to the United States, they had to leave families and homes behind forever, to endure arduous if not deadly journeys, and adapt to challenging conditions in the New World, and their relocation had important impacts on both the origin regions they left and the areas they moved to. Drewkeeling (talk) 11:40, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

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