Immigrants, Experiences of

Who are Immigrants?

Immigrant is a term used to describe foreign nationals who enter a country for purposes of permanent resettlement. They are distinguished from persons who may cross national borders temporarily, such as for purposes of enrolling in educational institutions or temporary employment but with the intent of returning to their homeland permanently. An immigrant may arrive legally, holding a specific visa for immigration, may decide to remain in a foreign country permanently after having spent some time there as a tourist, student, or guest worker, or may arrive without legal documents. In the United States, the legal definition of immigrant or permanent resident alien is used by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, formerly INS) to refer only to lawful permanent residents; however the term is commonly used to refer to any foreign nationals crossing borders for purposes of permanent resettlement.

There is no general agreement as to whether the term immigrant implies voluntary migration exclusively or encompasses voluntary as well as forced migration. Thus the term is generally not used to refer to the forced migration of Africans who were brought to the United States as slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the same way it may exclude the experience of “refugees,” or those who fled their native country to escape persecution, though often refugees, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants are thought of as different types of immigrants.

Immigrants in the U.S. Context

Early migration in U.S. history was predominantly European, the nation being a British colony till the late 18th century. Throughout the 19th century, [Page 576]northern Europeans, primarily of British, Irish, Scandinavian, and German descent, continued to come to the country. While these immigrants undoubtedly faced challenges in their adaptation to their new homeland, ethnic distinctions among these groups were not emphasized. Many spoke English and did not confront the challenge of needing to learn a new language. Many of the others continued to retain their native languages, with German bilingual education becoming a prominent system in private and public schools.

The turn of the 20th century brought the largest immigrant influx to date, and several events gave rise to assimilationist attitudes among Americans. Ellis Island became a symbol of this wave, with the nation creating a comprehensive infrastructure for processing large numbers of new arrivals. First, this migration wave was culturally distinct from groups that had settled the United States in prior decades and centuries, being predominantly composed of southern and eastern Europeans, including Italians, Greeks, and Jews from the Pale of Settlement within the Russian Empire. The size of this migration raised questions about whether the newcomers would so overwhelm the country that they would effectively change the culture, presumably for the worse. Many of the newly arrived groups were seen at the time as not only ethnically but racially distinct from “Anglo-Americans” (Alba, 1990). In this context, assimilation was seen as the solution to the immigration crisis, and public education was seen as the vehicle through which the newcomers would become Americanized. Second, the outbreak of World War I resulted in anti-German sentiment and effectively put an end to German bilingual education, which could have served as a model for adaptation to the U.S. culture while retaining the culture of origin for newly arrived groups. In this atmosphere immigrants were encouraged to abandon their native cultures and become “American.” Over time, these ethnic distinctions among Europeans have ceased to create social chasms, and descendants of Irish, Italian, Greek, and even Jewish immigrants are all considered “White” in the United States today.

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