Us Immigration History

555 Words3 Pages

Immigration to the United States has changed a lot since its establishment. The main, large influx of immigrants is characterized around the time when factory work was in high demand (specifically 1900-1930). Throughout this period there were about 18.7 million immigrants, which seems like a high volume, but when compared to contemporary immigration numbers of 20.9 million, its evident that progress hasn’t stopped. (Zhou) There are a few factors that make contemporary immigration different from this time of immigration. Previously, immigrants were seen as the poor, uneducated and unskilled “huddled masses” arriving on ships from Europe by the thousands trying to escape starvation in their home countries. But today, “more than 60 percent of Indian immigrants have college degrees, although that is ten times the rate for Mexican immigrants.” (Zhou, 87) Today, there are much higher numbers in undocumented immigrants. This is because of the demand in agricultural labor, the operation of people that facilitate illegal entry, and the fact that it is easier to make the journey from Mexico than from Europe illegally. Most of contemporary immigrants are Mexican, while, historically, it people immigrated from …show more content…

International migration was comprised of male sojourners, which were men who came to the United States alone, looking for work, while their family was in their home country. Sojourners planned to stay in the United States for a temporary amount of time and then return home with money for their family. If men weren’t sojourners, they were probably going to part in relayed migration. Relayed migration occurs when the man of the house immigrated to the United States found work, made money and set up a new life here and then sent for his family when he was able to take care of them in the new land. Sojourning made for very gendered segregated