& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Immigration to America

by Maura Christopher
THE story of the American people is the story of immigrants. The United States has welcomed more immigrants than any other coun-' fry In the world. More than 75 per cent of all people who ever moved from their homeland settled in the United States. Since its early days, the United States has accepted more than 50 million newcomers.
Migration to America began more than 20,000 years ago. At that time, groups of wandering hunters followed herds of game (animals hunted for food) from Asia to America across a northern land bridge where the Bering Straits are today.- These people settled throughout
North and South America. They are considered to be the only "native" Americans. By the time Christopher Columbus. an Italian navigator employed by the Spanish monarchs. "discovered" the American continents in 1492, about one million Native Americans lived in the area that later became the United States. Today, there are about 1.4 million Native Americans in the United States (0.6 per cent of the total population).
Groups of Spanish settlers established outposts in what is now Florida, in the southeastern United States, during the 1500s, and a small French colony was founded on the New
World's northeastern seacoast (Maine) in 1604. In 1607. Great Britain founded its first permanent North American settlement : Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia — now a state located along the southeastern coast of the United States. Communities of Dutch, Swedish and German settlers were also established along North America's Atlantic coastline.
Why did these early European colonists risk a dangerous ocean journey and great hardship to settle in an unknown land? They were brought by the same desires that still bring immigrants today. The first European settlers
were seeking land, wealth and freedom — a better life. Some colonists came to America to find religious freedom; one example of these was a group of English religious dissenters called Pilgrims. In 1620, the Pilgrims founded the colony of Plymouth, in what is now Massachusetts. The Pilgrims disagreed with the religious teachings of the official Church of England, and they came to America to be free to worship as they pleased.
British North America
By 1700, Great Britain had established clear colonial dominance over that part of North America which later became the eastern United States. Thirteen separate British colonies, governed indirectly by the British Parliament, provided raw material for the "mother country” and bought goods produced in Britain. Though people of many European nationalities lived in the colonies, the official language spoken was English and British laws and social institutions prevailed.
Over time, the colonial inhabitants of North America became increasingly dissatisfied with the power of Great Britain's king and Parliament to control their lives. They believed Britain's taxes to pay for colonial administrative expenses to be an unjustified burden. and they feared that the broad degree of personal freedom which existed In the colonies might be curtailed. This situation led, in 1775, to the outbreak of hostilities between British military and colonial marksmen and to the colonists formally declaring their Independence from Great Britain in 1776. The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) established the independence of the United States.
Even during the Revolutionary War, Immigration from many countries continued, and in 1776 Thomas Paine, an Englishman who emigrated to America in 1774, wrote "Europe, not England, is the parent country to America." These words encouraged immigrants from Holland. Germany. France. Switzerland. Spain and Scotland to come to the New World. In 1780, three out of every four Americans were of English or Irish background. Most of the rest came from other countries In northern and western Europe.
Unwilling Immigrants
Among the flood of immigrants to North America, one group of people came unwillingly. These were Africans. About 500,000 Africans were brought to the colonies as slaves between 1619 and 1808. This trade began as an outgrowth of the Spanish traffic in slaves between Africa and South America. Importing slaves to the United States became a crime in 1808, 21 years after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 1787, but slaveiy itself was not eliminated until after the Civil War ( 1861-1865). By 1810. there were 7.2 million people in the
United States, of which 1.2 million were slaves and 186,768 free blacks In 1863. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in areas of the nation which were in rebellion. Slavery' was completely abolished in 1865, with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Some blacks had gained their freedom before this time. Today, black Americans compose about 12 per cent Of the total population.
The Golden Door
Between 1840 and 1860. the United States received its largest wave of immigrants to date. In Europe, famine, poor crops, rising populations and political unrest caused an estimated five million people to leave their homelands each year. Between 1845 and 1850. the Irish people faced famine. The potato crop, upon which the Irish depended for subsistence. suffered blight for five years, and about 750.000 Irish starved to death. Many of those who survived left Ireland for the United States. In one year alone — 1847 — 118,120 Irish people emigrated to the United States. By 1860. one of every four people In New York City had been born in Ireland. Today tn the United States there are more than 13 million Americans of Irish ancestry.
During the Civil War. the federal government encouraged immigration from Europe, especially from the German states, by offering grants of land to those immigrants who would serve as troops in the armies of the North. In 1865. about one in five Northern soldiers was a wartime immigrant. Today, fully one-third of Americans have German ancestors.
Until about 1880. most immigrants came from northern and western Europe. Then a great change occurred. More and more immigrants began coming from countries in eastern and southern Europe. They were Poles. Italians. Greeks, Russians, Hungarians and Czechs. By 1896. more than half of all Immigrants were from eastern or southern Europe.
One group of people who came to the United States during this period were Jew. The first Jewish people actually settled in North America as early as 1654. but Jews did not move to the United States in great numbers until the 1880s. During the 1880s. Jews suffered fierce pogroms (massacres)
throughout eastern Europe. Many thousands of Jews escaped an almost certain death by coming to the United States. Between 1880 and 1925. about two million Jews immigrated here. Today, there are about 5.7 million Jewish Americans living in the United States, comprising about 2.2 per cent of the total population. In certain states, such as New York, a state along the mid-Atlantlc coast, their numbers are higher, and they account for more than 10 per cent of the population.
During the late 1800s. so many people were entering the United States that the government was having trouble keeping records on all of these people. To solve this problem, the government opened a special port of entry In New York harbor. This port was called Ellis Island. Between 1892, when Ellis Island was opened, and 1954. when it closed, more than 20 million immigrants entered the United States through this port of entry. During its busiest days, almost 2,000 immigrants a day passed through. Today, about half of all Americans have ancestors who entered the United States by way of Ellis Island.
The United States was be-coming known throughout the world as a refuge and a welcoming place for people of many
worrying that the United States was being overrun by immigrants. In the 30 years between 1890 and 1920, more than 18.2 million immigrants flooded America's shores. By 1910, 14.5 per cent of all residents were foreign-born; today, about 6.2 per cent of all American residents are foreign-born.
How could the United States absorb so many foreigners? Many citizens worried that these new Americans would j take away their Jobs. Citizens began demanding that the । Congress limit the number of j immigrants.
Limits on Newcomers
Gradually, responding to the I demands of American citizens.
Congress began to pass laws barring the entry of certain types of immigrants. The United States refused to accept immigrants who were prostitutes, convicts, insane, mentally retarded, beggars, revolutionaries. persons suffering from serious diseases and children without at least one par-
These rules only held back one percent of all immigrants. So Congress tried to deny entry to immigrants who could not read or write. However, President Grover Cleveland, who was then president of the United States, refused to give his approval. Some people protesteci that the United States was being overrun by "inferior” races. But President Cleveland wrote : "Within recent memory.... the same thing was said of Immigrants who. with their descendants, are now numbered among our best citizens."
In 1924. Congress passed the Reed-Johnson Immigration Act. This law. which reflected the fears and prejudices of an "older" wave of immigrants
nations. In 1886, as a gesture of friendship, France gave the United States the Statue of Liberty, which stands on an island in the harbor of New York City, near Ellis Island. Since that time, the Statue of Liberty has been one of the first sights many immigrants to the United States see. It is a symbol of the hope and freedom that the country offers. The words etched on the base of the statue have been the inspiration for people in many lands who hope to come to the United States : "Give me your tried, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door I"
Ellis Island is now a national park and historical museum. In the first year that it was open, more than a million people visited — many of them to see the place where their ancestors entered the United States. Visitors enter the museum through the baggage room, Just as their ancestors did. Then they walk upstairs and sit on the benches where new arrivals waited their turn to fill out forms and undergo medical examinations.
The Statue of Liberty began lighting the way for new arrivals Just at a time when native-born Americans began
from northern Europe, set limits on how many people from each foreign country would be permitted to immigrate to the United States. The number of people allowed from each country was based on the number of people from that country already living here. This system was designed primarily to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe. For example. 87 per cent of the immigration permits went to immi-f'rants from Great Britain, Ire-and, Germany and Scandinavia.
The mix of American people today reflects this old system. For example, until the 1970s, almost 8i per cent of all newcomers to the United States emigrated from 10 nations: 14.8 percent came from Germany; 11.1 percent came from Italy: 10.3 percent came from Great Britain: 10 per cent came from Ireland: 9.2 per cent came from Austria and Hungary; 8.6 per cent came from Canada: 7.1 per cent came from Russia; 4.1 per cent came from Mexico; 3 per cent came from the West Indies; and 2.7 per cent came from Sweden.
Immigration was slow during the "Great Depression" years of the 1930s. This was a time when one out of four Americans was without a Job. In fact, more people moved out of the United States during these years than
entered.
Earlier, laws had been passed specifically to exclude Asian immigrants. Citizens in the American West were afraid that the Chinese and other Asians would take away Jobs building railroads, and there was much animosity toward them. In 1882, the United States banned most Chinese immigration. Other Asians were refused entry as well. By 1924. no Asian immigrants were permitted into the United States.
The law that kept out Chinese immigrants was changed in 1949. and thereafter. Chinese were once again allowed to enter and to become American citizens. Other Aslans have been permitted to become American citizens since 1952. Today. Asian-Amerlcans are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. About 6.5 million Aslans live in the United States, comprising about 2.5 per cent of the population. Asian immigrants come from many very different countries, including the People's Republic of China, Japan, The Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia and Thailand.
Although most Asians in the United States emigrated relatively recently, they have become one of the most successful immigrant groups in the country. Large numbers of them study in the best American universities. They also have a higher average income than many other ethnic groups.
Refugees
After World War II. the United States began accepting refugees as a special group. The first refugees to the United States were Europeans who were uprooted by the horrors war. Since then, the United States has taken In refugees
■ from many places in the world. In 1956. thousands of Hungarians sought refuge in the United States after the Soviet Union crushed the attempt to establish a non-communist government In Hungary. After Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, the United States accepted 700,000 Cuban refugees. Many of these people settled together In communities around Miami, Florida. Again, In 1980, the United States accepted a special group of more than 110,000 Cuban refugees who came in crowded boats.
{ The United States has also I accepted other groups of special political refugees. These include Southeast Aslans, who were fleeing persecution after the end i of the Vietnam War. Since 1975. I the United States has accepted 750,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia ana The Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Who Immigrates?
The year 1965 marked a most Important change in American Immigration law. A new law signed by President Lyndon B Johnson ended the old system of immigration that had favoured northern and western Europeans. Under the new law. there is no consideration of people's country of origin. Just as there have never been legal bars based on their race or their beliefs. Since 1965, the United States has accepted immigrants strictly on the basis of who applies first, within overall annual limits.
Abridged