Immigration to the USA throughout history

[Domen]

Is there data regarding the total number of immigrants in each year / each 10 year period, etc. throughout history (i.e. all who weren't born in the US)?

 

[Cutlass]

I don't think so. Estimates. But there really wasn't a lot of record keeping before the end of the 19th century.

http://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_to_the_United_States

http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/issues/history

US borders were essentially wide open before the 1880s or so. And only selectively closed for the next 50 years after that.

This is the only link I see that is actually willing to number numbers.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/timeline.html

 

[Louis XXIV]

I suspect 20th Century numbers are pretty decent, but sketchy before that - particularly prior to quotas being introduced (I'm not sure when, perhaps the Quota Act).

 

[Flying Pig]

You could probably make a stab at it by looking at the census and checking the surnames, but that would be laborious.

 

[Traitorfish]

The reliability of figures also depends on where they're coming from. Numbers from the UK are relatively solid because we can count them at both ends, but that's not really possible in a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe. There's also the problem that a lot of migrants returned to Europe (something which is often overlooked), and may then have made return trips, so simply counting the raw number of entrants is going to give an artificially inflated figure.

You could probably make a stab at it by looking at the census and checking the surnames, but that would be laborious.

Although that's limited by the fact that a lot of migrants changed their names to fit in- "Muller" become "Miller", "Bielski" becomes "Biel", etc.- so it might not give a clear picture. It would also be difficult to count migrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia and Germany in that way, because they'd been coming to America since the 17th century, so there's no immediate telling if an O'Niel or a Schmidt arrived in 1880 or 1680.

 

[Domen]

In one thread (link below) Pangur Bán argued that most of Americans declare non-English ancestry (German, Irish, etc.), but most of them have English surnames - and he suggested that probably something is wrong here (either people with English ancestry declare non-English ancestry, or something else):

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=1164885&highlight=top+surnames+English#post1164885

I think that one factor can be Anglicization of surnames (as mentioned by Traitorfish above).

a lot of migrants changed their names to fit in- "Muller" become "Miller", "Bielski" becomes "Biel", etc.

"Schwarz" becomes "Black". "Czarny" becomes "Black". Etc.

 

[Domen]

For some reason in the USA places with many Polish-Americans and with many German-Americans tend to be the same places.

One example - in the town of Bevent, Wisconsin, 61.0% of inhabitants report Polish ancestry and 30.6% report German ancestry.

In total 91.6% of the population of Bevent (100% = 1118 people) report either Polish or German ancestry. Quite intriguing.

 

[Antilogic]

The reliability of figures also depends on where they're coming from. Numbers from the UK are relatively solid because we can count them at both ends, but that's not really possible in a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe. There's also the problem that a lot of migrants returned to Europe (something which is often overlooked), and may then have made return trips, so simply counting the raw number of entrants is going to give an artificially inflated figure.


Although that's limited by the fact that a lot of migrants changed their names to fit in- "Muller" become "Miller", "Bielski" becomes "Biel", etc.- so it might not give a clear picture. It would also be difficult to count migrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia and Germany in that way, because they'd been coming to America since the 17th century, so there's no immediate telling if an O'Niel or a Schmidt arrived in 1880 or 1680.

From what I remember from class, the returner problem is going to be the greatest for Italians and likely the lowest for Jewish migration in the 19th century.

There was also a spat of name-changing right around WW1--after the US entered the war, there were a lot of German immigrants who changed their names to fit in.

For some reason in the USA places with many Polish-Americans and with many German-Americans tend to be the same places.

One example - in the town of Bevent, Wisconsin, 61.0% of inhabitants report Polish ancestry and 30.6% report German ancestry.

In total 91.6% of the population of Bevent (100% = 1118 people) report either Polish or German ancestry. Quite intriguing.

It's not wholly unusual. Most Germans and other East Europeans worked their way through the big Midwestern industrial states.

 

[Serutan]

In one thread (link below) Pangur Bán argued that most of Americans declare non-English ancestry (German, Irish, etc.), but most of them have English surnames - and he suggested that probably something is wrong here (either people with English ancestry declare non-English ancestry, or something else):

IIRC one thing that happened at lot at Ellis Island was if the immigration official couldn't figure out how to spell the immigrant's name, he would Anglicize it in the manner alluded to by Traitorfish, and the person would be stuck with it. So nothing fishy.

 

[Domen]

Most Germans and other East Europeans

Since when are Germans East Europeans?

Of course many German-Americans and Polish-Amercians came to the USA from the same areas of Prussia, or of the German Empire.

I'm not sure about this but I suppose that more Polish-Americans came from Prussian and Austrian zones than from Russan partition zone.

Also majority of modern Jewish-Americans are descendants of Jews from Poland, or from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

 

[Luckymoose]

Since when are Germans East Europeans?

He said Group A and others from Group B.

 

[Joecoolyo]

There was also a spat of name-changing right around WW1--after the US entered the war, there were a lot of German immigrants who changed their names to fit in.

Yeah, I can provide an anecdote for this. My hometown changed its name around WWI from a very German name to a generic English one.

 

[Domen]

He said Group A and others from Group B.

Except that I already wrote that Group A and Group B were to a large extent from the same area of Europe.

 

[Gucumatz]

Yea you find regions of the country with heavy cultural enclaves. In Texas when the Anglos came in so did Germans, 6 provinces of Texas were heavily German throughout most of history - so much so that they were staunch unionists in the Civil War, make food in Texas a bit tolerable, and LBJ even was able to have Adenauer hear nothing but German for several hours when he was touring Texas.

Just one example of course. You find enclaves of all sorts of nationalities. Detroit is an interesting example of this in modern times, you find enclaves of all sorts of nationalities and ethnicities. In the south you didn't really see much immigration for years, but there are numerous different Hispanic enclaves now too (You'll find everyone from Chapines, to Dominicans, to Sinaloans, to you name it)

 

[Domen]

But in any case, the largest ancestry group in the USA is not "German".

The largest ancestry group in the USA (as of 2000 census) is "Not reported":



So probably Pangur Ban is right (especially that "American" ancestry are also mostly English surnames).

Check detailed data in the attached file:

 

[GamezRule]

There were a lot of places in general in the United States that abandoned German sounding names when the USA entered WW1.

Several notes: The 2000 census is a terrible source for an argument made in 2014, especially considering you can just get data from the 2010 census.

Also, most people in the United States have mixed ancestry. Personally, I haven't got clue about mine outside of English and Scottish.

Using surnames is a terrible idea for determining origin of Americans, many people had their names changed upon arriving in the United States when immigration was at its peak, and like Joe said many people with German names changed them when WW1 broke out.

Finally, German is the largest ethnic group in the United States as far as white people go. Deal with it. Latinos are possibly the largest group now if you split white people up and count illegal immigrants.

 

[Domen]

especially considering you can just get data from the 2010 census.

I've read that 50% of population growth between 2000 and 2010 was Latino-American growth.

So the overall structure of ancestry probably did not change much, except for Hispanic-Americans.

I couldn't find detailed data from 2010 census - at least not in one easily accessible document.

Data from wikipedia is faulty because it summs up First and Second ancestries altogether. Doing like this you are going to arrive at the summ of all ancestries being much higher than the total number of people living in the USA. When a person reports 2 ancestries it doesn't mean this person are 2 people...

This is why I decided to count only First Ancestry reports, in order not to get more ancestries than people.

Also, most people in the United States have mixed ancestry.

Most people anywhere in the world have mixed ancestry. It only differs when it comes to how many generations ago.

In 2000 census people could only report First Ancestry and Second Ancestry. So just two of them at the most.

Finally, German is the largest ethnic group in the United States as far as white people go.

I tend to agree with Pangur Ban that British - or even just English - is the largest ethnic group.

Especially that majority of people who report "American" ancestry have English and Scottish roots.

"Americans" could already be found as majority of white population of Virginia in 1790 census.

People who reported being "Americans" early on, were mostly religious refugees from the British Isles.

Being religious refugees, they had no love for their previous homeland - thus they reported "American" identity.

I haven't got clue about mine outside of English and Scottish.

Did you declare English (First) and Scottish (Second) also in the census?

=====================================

When it comes to this graph posted above:

Can, Aus, NZ = Canada, Australia, New Zealand
BIS = British Isles
CEu = Central Europe (here for example German ancestry is included)
WEu = Western Europe (I included here also Italian)
Eu = Eastern Europe (I included here also Polish, Romanian and Russian)
Scn = Scandinavian (I included here also Finland)
Balk = Balkan (also Greek ancestry is here)
Generic Eu = vast majority of this group is "European" ancestry

If you want to see in detail which ancestries I included in each group, check the attachment.

 

[Luckymoose]

You need to understand that plenty of Americans simply claim to be American, not German or English. The South, for example, contains 100+ million Americans and the majority respond as American. Tons of Americans were originally German, though, and changed their names in WW1 or WW2.

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah, you can't say from what someone is answering today if their ancestors came from what is today Germany 1-200 years ago. And it's almost certainly to be mixed heritage at this point, and so homogenized to just American.

 

[Domen]

The South, for example, contains 100+ million Americans and the majority respond as American.

This identity dates back already to Virginia in 1790 census.

Not the majority but only 20+ million, though.