History of American Immigration

Immigration is a vital piece of American history. The United States is a country that was founded by immigrants and they also played a key role in the growth of the American nation. From the period of European colonization of the new world to today, every major period in our history is influenced by immigrants. However, our history is also marked with periods of fear toward immigrant communities. From the forced immigration of Africans to North America which began in the 17th century to the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, immigrants and their treatment is an issue that affects every aspect of society.

Although Europeans had been immigrating to the Americas since the 16th century, the first great wave of European immigration did not come until the 1880s. Previous events such as the Irish potato famine of 1845, the Gold Rush in 1849 and failed revolutions in Germany and France in 1848 led to the immigration of more than one million people by the 1850s. Nevertheless, the 1880s saw a huge immigration explosion. The period between 1880 and 1924 witnessed an average of 560,000 immigrants per year, amounting to over 25 million immigrants over a 44 year period.

This period saw a large increase in Jewish immigration to the US, largely due to repressive laws enacted in Russia and Prussia. Additionally, large numbers of Italians fleeing the economic and political climate of their homeland found a new home in America. This period also featured the opening of Ellis Island in the New York harbor, which processed more than 22 million immigrants before it closed in 1954.

The high rate of immigration from the previous period between 1880 and 1924 led to a growing frustration from the congestion immigration was causing. In 1924, Congress moved to reduce immigration quotas in an attempt to control the growth of the population. The Immigration Act of 1924 established fixed quotas based on nationality and suspended all immigration from the Far East. The establishment of permanent quotas in 1929, coupled with the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression, caused a dramatic decrease in immigration during the 1930s. Although immigration slowed considerably during World War II, when the war ended in 1945, immigration resumed its normal pace. Yet, further immigration legislation in 1952 helped to lower the average number of immigrants per year. All in all, the period between 1925 and 1964 witnessed a 70 percent drop in immigration.

In the 1965, the immigration controls enacted in the previous 40 years came to an end and immigration resumed at a pace nearly equal to the great wave of the early 20th century. With the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, the system of overarching quotas was abolished and replaced with national quotas. Between 1965 and 1989, the US grew by nearly 500,000 immigrants per year. However, immigration did not remain at that level for long.

The 1990s brought a new face to immigration. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992 led to an increase in the availability of cheap labor from Mexico, leading to a major spike in immigration levels. Immigration rates nearly doubled, with an average of 1,000,000 immigrants entering the country annually. This influx of new labor led to calls for immigration reform, especially as industries began to move production out of the country in an effort to lower their costs. However, it was the attacks of September 11, 2001, that once again put immigration reform in the spotlight. The investigation into the attacks showed that many of the hijackers had entered the country on fake or invalid visas and it was this revelation that changed the immigration debate into a matter of national security. Recently, groups of armed citizens have been patrolling the Mexican border in order to assist law enforcement with the prevention of illegal border crossings. In Washington D.C., the debate over immigration reform continues to this day and will be a top issue in upcoming Congressional elections.