Hey guys!
I’ve not updated in a
week and I actually have an excuse for that! As New Orleans is a city full of
history, I decided to explore some of it. As there is a lot of immigration
going on here, I thought, that there had to be somewhere I could get some
information. As you see the title, some of you are probably thinking, “what the
hell does she mean”, while some of you go “ahaaaa”. I met a nice couple who
brought me to an expert on immigration to the United States. Moreover, since
I’m a history freak, I’m going to bore you with some information. Nah, I’m
kidding. ;) PS. In a few days I’ll be going to Dallas! Can’t wait!
Throughout much of the
history of the United States there has been a major source of population growth
and cultural change. The immigration is a very complex demographic phenomenon,
and it’s the cause of all the changes. The social, economic and political
aspects of immigration have actually caused economic benefits, jobs for
non-immigrants, controversy regarding ethnicity, settlement patterns, crime,
voting behaviour and impact on upward social mobility. The U.S: lets in fewer
immigrant than half the countries in the OECD on a per capita basis. For
approximately two-third of legal immigration accounts for family reunification
the US every year. And as of 2009 66% of legal immigrant were admitted on this
basis. 17% of them were for humanitarian reasons, along with 13% admitted for
their employment skills. Immigrants that have entered the United States from
2000 to 2010 is almost 14 million! That’s a whole lot. In Norway there aren’t
that many immigrants, (unless you count the east-side of Oslo, haha) but there
aren’t nearly as many people in Norway as there are in the United States
anyway. Immigrants currently leading in the United States is immigrants from
Mexico, China, India and the Philippines. 
Now we’re going to talk
a little about the waves. As I’ve never knew of the waves before now, I was
really excited in what the expert had to say. He seemed quite excited too, as
there aren’t many who willingly hears what he has to say. The first wave was
1790-1820. The push and pull factor were that the groups of immigrants came for
a variety of political, religious and economic reasons. The immigrants were
from all around the world: English, Germans, Scots-Irish, Scots, French,
Spanish, Dutch and Puritans. They all had different reasons to come to the
States. The second wave was in 1820-1860. The push and pull factors were that
immigrants came for new opportunities! In Europe the peasants displaced from
artisans and agriculture were made jobless from the industrial revolution. Many
of the immigrants received the so-called “American Letters” which made them
join America. The immigrants were almost only German, Irish and British. Around
40% of the immigrants came from Ireland. The third wave was in 1880-1914. The
push and pull factor were the usual. The immigrants came to America for freedom
of religion and more job opportunities. By 1914 there was about 1.2 million
immigrants in the States! Now on to the Fourth Wave, that’s my favourite wave.
The Fourth Wave was from 1965 to present (now). The push and pull factors were
that a new law had been made. 
The law altered the selection of immigrants from
the skills they had, the country they were from, and the priority to people who
already had family in The United States. The Immigrants were the Asians, the
Europeans, and the Hispanics (Mexico). The reason for it being my favourite
wave is that with the Europeans came the Italians. In the early to mid-1900’s there
were a lot of mafia going on in the big cities like New York and Chicago. I’ve
always been interested in that, and most of the mafia families were Italian.
(Godfather, anyone?) 
I was surprised when
the expert also knew of the Norwegian Immigration to the United States. He told
me a lot, but I also knew some of it myself. :D The major waves of immigrants
from Norway was in 1825. It’s recognized as the start of Norwegian emigration,
and when the ships Restauration set sail with 53 Norwegians aboard. But it was
not until 1865 that a large Norwegian immigration occurred. For eight years a
there was a mass immigration, and during this period there was about 110,000
Norwegians that entered the United States. It was in the rural areas of western
and eastern Norway that the first Norwegian immigrants left their homes. The
majority of the people who left their homes did it for either religious or
economic reasons. The country faced an industrial slowdown, something that made
it hard to find jobs for the younger population. They left in search of a way
to support their families and themselves. And as America’s economy grew they
needed workers. It was this opportunity for employment that drew The Norwegians
to America. The early immigrants settled in western New York. They then began
to move westward to Illinois and then to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Norwegian
communities developed in Brooklyn, New York, Alaska, Seattle and Texas. The
largest population of Norwegian Americans lives in Wisconsin and Minnesota as
of 1990. 
Moving on to Ellis
Island. Ellis Island lays in Jersey City and New York City, in the Upper New
York Bay. From 1892 to 1954 it was the nation’s busiest immigrants inspection
station. In this time it was the gateway for millions of immigrants who wished
to come to the United States. An enormous three-story-tall structure was the
first federal immigrant inspection station. It was with outbuildings,
containing all of the amenities and built of Georgia pine though to be
necessary. On January 1, 1892, it opened with celebration. On the first day,
three large ships landed and 700 immigrants passed over the docks. During it’s
first day almost 450,000 immigrants were processed at the station. A fire of
unknown origin that possibly was caused by faulty wiring turned all the wooden
structures on Ellis Island into ashes on June 15, 1897. There was no loss of
life reported, but most of the immigration record were destroyed, going as far
back as to 1855. During it’s five years of use, about 1.5 million immigrants
had been processed at the first building. The second Ellis Island Immigration
Station opened on December 17, 1900. The officials estimated that 5,000
immigrants would be processed per day. They barely handled the flood of
immigrants that arrived in the year before World War 1. On November 12, 1951 it
closed. By that time twelve million immigrants had been processed.
So I hope you liked it!
It was probably a lot of information at once, but knowing I have smart readers
*wink* you’ll read it all. The next time I’m writing I’ll probably be in Dallas!
:D See you next time.
-Hana♥
Sources:
Flott at du har med "push and pull factors" og at du hele veien klarer å kommentere teksten med egne tanker osv:) Hva med å fortelle navnet på de ulike bølgene? Fine bilder og god informasjon som passer til kravene:)
SvarSlett