Powell J. Encyclopedia Of North American Immigration

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reverted to royal control. Difficult to defend and producing

disappointing revenues, Louisiana was secretly ceded to Spain

in 1762. Between 1760 and 1790, about 4,000 French Aca-

dians relocated to Louisiana.

New France suffered from several problems that made

its existence as a French outpost problematic. Foremost was

a lack of settlers. Despite establishment of the powerful

OMPAGNIE DE LA

OUVELLE

RANCE

in 1627 with royal

support, it was difficult to find settlers who wished to immi-

grate to a cold and distant land. As late as 1663, the popu-

lation was only about 3,000. By 1700, the European

population of New France was still only 15,000. Also, the

French government paid little attention to New France,

finding it relatively easy to control according to mercantilis-

tic principles, as virtually all trade had to come through the

St. Lawrence and Quebec. These weaknesses came together

during the 18th century in the developing contest with

Britain for control of North America. Although France’s

army in Europe was superior, the king sent few troops to

America. Left to defend themselves, French trading compa-

nies were at a severe disadvantage. When the Seven Years’

War commenced, New France’s population was only

75,000, compared to 1.2 million in Britain’s various

colonies. In 1763, France signed the Treaty of Paris, handing

over New France east of the Mississippi River to Great

Britain. In doing so, 80,000 French-speaking Canadians

became British subjects.

Further Reading

Choquette, Leslie P. “Recruitment of French Emigrants to Canada,

1600–1760.” In

“To Make America”: European Emigration in the

Ear

ly Modern Period. Eds. Ida Altman and James Horn. Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1991.

Eccles, W

illiam J. Canada under Louis XIV

, 1663–1701. Toronto:

cClelland and Stewart, 1964.

———. France in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.

iquelon, D

ale. New France, 1701–1744: “A Supplement to Europe.”

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987.

oogk, P

eter N. La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada—

A Cultur

al History. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press,

2000.

———. “R

eluctant E

xiles: Emigrants from France in Canada before

1760.” William and Mary Quarterly 46 (July 1989): 463–505.

Trigger

, Bruce G. Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s “Heroic Age” Recon-

sidered. Kingston, Canada: M

cGill–Queen’s University Press,

1987.

udel, Marcel. The Beginnings of New France, 1524–1663. Toronto:

McClelland and S

tewart, 1972.

Vachon, André. Dreams of Empire: Canada before 1700. Ottawa: Pub-

lic Ar

chiv

es of Canada, 1982.

New Hampshire colony

An early area of contention between France and England,

the region of modern New Hampshire was gradually settled

mainly by English immigrants and became a prime ship-

building area for the British. By the time of the A

MERICAN

EVOLUTION

(1775–83), almost all lands had been claimed

and much of it settled, with some Scots-Irish establishing

settlements in southeastern New Hampshire.

Both French and English merchants explored New

Hampshire during the first two decades of the 17th cen-

tury. In 1620, England’s Council of New England was

founded to encourage settlement in a large region includ-

ing modern Maine and New Hampshire, which led to the

establishment of numerous settlements during the 1620s

and 1630s. John Mason was granted much of the region of

New Hampshire, naming it for his native county in Eng-

land. Between 1641 and 1680, it was governed as a part of

the M

ASSACHUSETTS COLONY

. It developed slowly, used

mainly as a source of wood and naval stories. When it was

separated from Massachusetts and established as a royal

colony by Charles II in 1680, its population was less than

5,000. Although largely agricultural, New Hampshire’s soil

and climate were less attractive to immigrants than regions

farther south, and settlers did not come in great numbers

until after 1760, when they began to fill the Connecticut

River Valley. Also, Indian wars in the area were common,

as the French and British and their Indian allies clashed

over control of the frontier. By the 1760s, New Hamp-

shire’s population was a little more than 50,000. Greatly

alarmed over the effects of the

NAVIGATION ACTS

,New

Hampshire joined the revolutionary effort against the

British in 1775.

Further Reading

Daniell, Jere R. Colonial N

ew Hampshire: A History. Millwood, N.Y.:

KTO, 1981.

Fassett, James Hiram. Colonial Life in N

ew H

ampshire. Boston: Ginn

and Company, 1899.

Jenness, John Scribner. Notes on the First Planting of New Hampshire

and on the P

iscataqua P

atents. Portsmouth, N.H.: L. W. Brewster,

1878.

an D

eventer, David E. The Emergence of Provincial New Hampshire,

1623–1741. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

new immigration

New immigration is a term principally applied to the United

States, designating a shift in the most common immigrant

groups. Most commonly it has been used to identify the

shift in immigrant trends that occurred during the 1880s.

Prior to that time, most immigrants came from Britain, Ire-

land, Germany, Scandinavia, and other regions of western

and northern Europe. During the 1880s, the percentage of

immigrants from eastern and southern Europe—the “new

immigrants”—increased dramatically, with most emigrating

from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. More recently the

term has been applied to immigrant shifts in the wake of the

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONALITY

of 1965, which

204 NEW HAMPSHIRE COLONY

abolished the national quota system and led to the dramatic

increase in immigration from Mexico, Central America, and

Asia. The use of the term new immigration in both cases sug-

gests a gr

oup of peoples less likely to be assimilated and thus

the target for v

arious forms of

NATIVISM

Further Reading

Chiswick, Barry, and Teresa A. Sullivan. “The New Immigrants.” In

State of the Union: A

merica in the 1990s, vol. 2d ed. R

eynolds Far-

ley. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1995.

Mink, Gwendolyn. Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Polit-

ical D

elopment: Union, Party, and State, 1875–1920. Ithaca,

N.Y.: Cornell University P

ress, 1986.

Olson, James S. The Ethnic Dimension in American History. 2d ed.

New York: St. Martin’s P

ess, 1994.

Reimers, David M. Unwelcome S

angers: American Identity and the

Turn against Immigration. New York: Columbia Univ

ersity Press,

1998.

New Jersey colony

Originally part of the newly conquered territory of New

Netherland, in 1664, New Jersey was granted by James,

Duke of York (later James II) as a proprietary colony to

John, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Promising

freedom of worship and government, the two proprieters

attracted a sizable population—about 14,000 by 1700, but

the absence of a deep-water port kept New Jersey mainly an

agricultural colony, developing in the shadow of neighbor-

ing N

ORK COLONY

The New Jersey coast was probably first visited by Euro-

peans in 1524 when Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian serv-

ing the French government, charted its coastal waters. The

Dutch visited the region as early as 1609 and eventually

established New Amsterdam (see N

ORK

)

at the mouth of the Hudson River. From there, they created

a trading network that extended into the Hudson, Con-

necticut, and Delaware River Valleys. Outposts were

founded in modern New Jersey in the 1620s, but the first

permanent settlement, Bergen, was not established until

1660. Swedes, who had arrived in the 1630s, were forced

out of the region in the 1650s. A growing Anglo-Dutch

international rivalry led to the ouster of the Dutch West

India Company from both New York and New Jersey in

1664. Shortly after Colonel Richard Nicolls was made gov-

ernor of the former New Netherland, he learned that the

duke of York had given New Jersey to two courtiers in

reward for their services during the English Civil War. Con-

fusion was rampant, as settlers authorized by Nicolls prior to

NEW JERSEY COLONY 205

A Ukrainian wedding takes place in Samburg, Saskatchewan, in 1917. The distinctive dress and customs of eastern and southern

Europeans who flooded into Canada and the United States between 1880 and 1914 marked them as “new immigrants”—as

opposed to the old immigrants from northern and western Europe whose ways of life were more similar to the American norm.

(George E. Dragan Collection/National Archives of Canada/PA-088459)

the transfer clashed with those recruited by Berkeley and

Carteret. Although Dutch settlers were allowed to keep their

lands, they were sometimes drawn into the disorder. Out of

the turmoil, a group of Quaker investors, including

ILLIAM

ENN

, bought Berkeley’s stake in 1674 leading

to the division of the territory into East Jersey and West Jer-

sey. West Jersey became the first Quaker colony in America.

Both halves struggled and were reunited in 1702 as a royal

colony. Until 1738, New Jersey was governed from New

York, but riots led to the establishment of a separate gov-

ernment. Most of New Jersey’s rural agriculturalists, includ-

ing heavy concentrations of German and Scots-Irish

immigrants after 1700, attempted to remain neutral during

the American Revolution against Great Britain (1775–83).

By 1750, about 20 percent of the population of New Jersey

was Scottish or of Scots descent.

Further Reading

Griffin, Patrick. The People with No Name: Ireland’s Ulster Scots, Amer-

ica’

s Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World,

1689–1764. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.

odges, G

raham Russell. Root and Branch: African Americans in New

Yor

k and East Jersey, 1613–1863. Chapel Hill: University of

Nor

th Carolina Press, 1999.

———. Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in

onmouth County

, New Jersey, 1665–1865. Madison, Wis.:

Madison H

ouse, 1997.

Pomfret, John E. Colonial New Jersey: A History. New York: Scribner’s,

1973.

Tien, Anita. “‘To Enjoy Their Customs’: The C

ultural A

daptation of

Dutch and German Families in the Middle Colonies,

1660–1832.” Ph.D. diss., University of California–Berkeley,

1990.

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans was one of the most important ports of entry

for immigration to the United States during the 19th cen-

tury, mainly because of its location at the mouth of the Mis-

sissippi River, which provided ready access to the interior of

country. For the same reason, New Orleans became the pre-

mier port of shipment for southern cotton and other com-

modities and thus developed a large shipping trade. Between

1820 and 1860, more than 550,000 immigrants entered the

United States through the port of New Orleans, making it

second only to New York City (see N

ORK

)

in terms of numbers. By 1850, about one-quarter of

Louisiana’s and the majority of New Orleans’s white popu-

lation was foreign born. Though it declined dramatically as

a port in the 20th century, its immigrant heritage—particu-

larly French and African—remained a distinctive and

appealing feature of the city’s character. In 2000, the

metropolitan population of New Orleans was 1,337,726.

The largest immigrant groups had come early in the 19th

century and were, therefore, thoroughly assimilated, most

notably French and French Canadians (211,000), Germans

(139,000), and Irish and Scots-Irish (122,000).

In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed the

Mississippi River Valley for France, naming it Louisiana

in honor of King Louis XIV (r. 1648–1715). Attempts by

Scottish investor John Law, who had been granted a com-

mercial monopoly by the French government, to colonize

the region failed between 1717 and 1720, though the

founding of New Orleans in 1718 was a lasting result

despite little French help in the endeavor. Although the

geographic situation of the city was of the utmost impor-

tance, the land itself was swampy and ill suited to devel-

opment, and the city grew slowly. From a population of

250 early in the 18th century, it grew to 4,000 by 1760

and to 8,000 by 1800. The French government was fear-

ful of allowing Protestants and potential adversaries in, and

few French citizens wished to settle in the Mississippi

delta. Law brought about 2,000 Germans into the area

north of the city, but the Mississippi Company he formed

to promote immigration failed in 1720. About 4,000

French colonists from A

CADIA

migrated to Louisiana fol-

lowing the capitulation of M

ONTREAL

UEBEC

, in 1760,

mainly settling outside New Orleans, but they too were

intensely hostile to outsiders. Disappointed with the little

income from the region, France secretly ceded Louisiana to

Spain (1762–1800); Spain did not gain firm control of

the region until 1769. During the 1790s, the sugar indus-

try was established, and the colony began to flourish. In

addition to a few Spanish settlers, during the American

Revolution (1775–83), a significant number of Americans

also came to New Orleans, which had been granted to the

Continental Congress as a base of operations during the

conflict. The demand for laborers, however, was never ade-

quately met, leading to a steady increase in the importation

of African slaves throughout the 18th century (see

FRICAN FORCED MIGRATION

). By 1800, more than half

of the region’s population was African American, though

the percentage was smaller in New Orleans itself.

In 1800, Napoleon coerced Spain into ceding Louisiana

back to France, though a full transfer of control was never

effected. Badly needing funds for his conquests in Europe,

Napoleon sold the entire Mississippi Valley to the United

States in December 1803 for about $15 million, a transac-

tion known as the Louisiana Purchase. The territory was

divided during the 19th century, with New Orleans and the

state of Louisiana being admitted to the Union in 1812.

With a potential British impediment having been thwarted

at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and the advent of the

commercial steamboat after the War of 1812, a great period

of economic expansion in the region began. From the first

steamboat that plied the Mississippi in 1812, the number

regularly calling at the port grew to 3,000 by the 1850s. The

great port and its fertile hinterland were now joined under

one government and linked by a natural water highway. The

206 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

population rapidly grew from about 8,000 in 1803 to

170,000 in 1860, with immigrants pouring into the region.

Between 1810 and 1840, it was the fastest-growing large city

in the United States, and in 1830 was the third largest city,

behind New York and B

ALTIMORE

ARYLAND

In 1860, about 86 percent of the population of New

Orleans was white, and another 6 percent were free blacks.

Overall, about 78,000 were native born, but there were large

numbers of Irish (24,398), German (19,675), and French

(10,564) immigrants and significant numbers of Britons,

Spaniards, and Italians. New Orleans had the largest Jewish

population in the South, with 8,000.

New Orleans was an attractive port of entry for a num-

ber of reasons. Because ships carrying southern cotton

returned with manufactured goods that took less space,

shipping companies often offered bargain fares to passen-

gers. New Orleans was also closer to the western interior

than eastern ports were, and it was readily accessible by

steamboats that plied the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

Because of Louisiana’s French culture, a small number of

French-speaking settlers were attracted to the city, and

because of its proximity and trade connections with Central

and South America, it also became the first center of His-

panic immigration to the United States.

After the Civil War (1861–65), the number of immi-

grants coming through the port of New Orleans dropped

dramatically. Federal blockades and Union occupation had

disrupted trade and passenger service during the war, and

completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 opened

the West to cheap overland transportation that competed

with the traditional ocean and river routes. There were rela-

tively few industrial jobs to attract unskilled workers. Also,

as the steamships grew larger, fewer of them could pass

through the sandbars at the mouth of the Mississippi. As late

as 1900, however, New Orleans was among the top dozen

cities in population, though it rapidly declined with the

massive influx of “new immigrants” into East Coast ports

(see

NEW IMMIGRATION

Tensions between whites and blacks in New Orleans

ran high throughout much of the late 19th and early 20th

centuries, leading to the passage of Jim Crow laws and an

increasingly segregated society. This erupted in deadly riots

in 1866 and 1900, as black citizens seeking to assert their

constitutional rights were set upon by angry whites. Many of

the city’s educated black Creoles who had not been slaves

were dismayed to find themselves lumped socially with the

freed slaves. After the riot in 1900, African Americans

fought a slow battle for civil rights. Creole activist A. P.

Tureaud helped establish the local branch of the National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP) in the 1920s.

Ethnic communities remained strong in New Orleans

until World War II (1939–45). Between 1950 and 1975,

developers used modern technology to drain marshlands,

enabling New Orleans to double the geographic size of the

metropolitan area. This led to the flight of much of the

white population and the gradual dispersion of the previ-

ously confined cultural mix. The city lost much of its tax

base and many jobs as whites fled to the suburbs and sur-

rounding areas. As a result, New Orleans was not highly

popular as an immigrant destination after World War II. In

2000, the largest of the new Hispanic and Asian immigrant

groups that dominated after the I

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONALITY

(1967) were Vietnamese (16,000), Cen-

tral Americans (16,000), about half of whom were Hon-

duran, and Mexicans (10,000).

Further Reading

Brasseaux, Carl A. The “Foreign French”: Nineteenth-Century French

Immigr

ation into Louisiana. 3 vols. Lafayette: University of

Southw

estern Louisiana, 1990–93.

———. The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life

in Louisiana, 1765–1803. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univer-

sity Press, 1987.

———, ed. A Refuge for All Ages: Immigration in Louisiana History.

Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1996.

Brasseaux, Carl A., and G

lenn R. Conrad, eds. The Road to Louisiana:

The Saint D

omingue Refugees, 1792–1809. Lafayette: University

of Southw

estern Louisiana, 1992.

Lewis, Peirce F. New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape. 2d

ed. Charlottesville: U

niv

ersity of Virginia Press, 2003.

McNabb, Donnald, and Louis E. Madère, Jr. “A History of New

Orleans.” Available online. URL: http://www.madere.com/

history.html. Accessed February 28, 2004.

Stolarik, M. Mark, ed. Forgotten Doors: The Other Ports of Entry to the

nited S

tates. Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1988.

New York, New York

From its earliest days, New Amsterdam, the precursor to

New York City, was one of the most heterogeneous places on

earth. By 1660, the Dutch governor, William Kieft,

observed that 18 languages could be heard in and around

Fort Amsterdam. New York has been a multinational city of

immigrants ever since. Since 1816, more than 70 percent of

all immigrants arriving by sea landed first in New York. The

immigrant depot of E

LLIS

SLAND

and the Statue of Liberty

are visible testimonies to the fundamental role of immigra-

tion to New York City’s history in a way that is not true of

any other city in North America. In 2000, the heritage of

both old and

NEW IMMIGRATION

was evident. Almost 23

percent of the New York metropolitan area’s population of

21.2 million was foreign born, with 1.25 million coming

from Asia and 1.24 million coming from the Caribbean.

The largest ethnic groups in New York include the largely

assimilated Italians (3.4 million), Irish (2.6 million), Ger-

mans (1.8 million), and Poles (1.1 million) and the more

recently arrived Dominicans (572,915), Chinese (536,966),

Asian Indians (450,142), Mexicans (331,212), and

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 207

Jamaicans (321,745). Puerto Ricans number 1.3 million,

though as citizens of an American commonwealth, they are

not formally immigrants.

ENRY

UDSON

claimed the area for the Dutch in

1609. In 1625, settlers for the Dutch East India Company

established the first permanent settlement on Manhattan

Island, establishing Fort Amsterdam and purchasing the

island from the native peoples. The settlement of New

Amsterdam grew around the fort and, by the 1650s, was

thriving, with additional settlements in the Bronx, Brook-

lyn, Queens, and Staten Island. As the result of three

Anglo-Dutch Wars fought between 1652 and 1674, the

colony of New Netherland, along with its capital city, were

transferred to England. By 1700, the city, renamed New

York, had a population of almost 7,000. Though initially

smaller than either B

OSTON

or P

HILADELPHIA

, New York

offered an excellent harbor that encouraged trade and com-

merce, and by 1800, the city had grown to 60,000 and

become the largest city in the new republic. For the next

two centuries, New York was the premier destination in

the world for immigrants. In 1898, Manhattan and most of

the communities of the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and

Staten Island were formally united to create an unparalleled

metropolis of more than 3 million people. Rapid popula-

tion growth contributed to many environmental, trans-

portation, and housing problems through the 20th century.

Although immigrants came continuously from the time

of New York’s founding, there were three characteristic

phases of the process, each altering the nature of the immi-

grant community. Before 1880, the vast majority of immi-

grants came from western Europe. The earliest of these

immigrants, prior to 1855, were processed at a variety of

New York docks. As hundreds of thousands of immigrants,

largely from Ireland, Germany, England, and Scandinavia,

poured into the city every year after the mid-1840s, New

York State commissioners realized that a better system was

needed for tracking immigrant entry, guarding against dis-

ease, and protecting newly arrived immigrants from

exploitation. After 1855, immigrants were ferried from their

ships to C

ASTLE

ARDEN

, an old entertainment hall, where

immigration officers counted them and obtained informa-

tion regarding age, religion, occupation, and value of per-

sonal property. By the 1850s, more than 40 percent of New

York’s population was foreign born. It has been estimated

that the percentage in Manhattan was more than 50 per-

cent and that more than half of these were Irish. While Ger-

man immigrants tended to use New York as a departure

point for resettlement in rural areas of the Midwest and

West, the Irish usually stayed in the city. The main tension

in this period was between the old-line British and Dutch

culture and the newly arrived, slum-dwelling Irish. Fleeing

from the terrors of the Great Irish Famine (1845–51), the

Irish usually arrived poor, hating the English, and commit-

ted to their Catholic faith (see I

RISH IMMIGRATION

). By

the late 19th century, however, Irish New Yorkers were

beginning to gain access to important positions of political

and financial power.

After 1880, the immigrant source countries shifted

from northern and western Europe to eastern and southern

Europe, significantly altering the character of the city. The

peoples of the

NEW IMMIGRATION

, drawn from dozens of

ethnic groups from Italy and the Austro-Hungarian,

Ottoman, and Russian Empires, were generally poor and

by American standards of the day dressed oddly and prac-

ticed strange customs. As Italians, Poles, Jews, and others

flooded into New York in record numbers, states receiving

large numbers of immigrants petitioned the federal govern-

ment for a revision of immigration policies. After years of

appeals, New York State officials threatened to close Castle

Garden unless the federal government agreed to fund its

operations. As a result, in 1882, a head tax of 50¢ was

assessed on every immigrant in order to meet the initial costs

of reception. New federal guidelines in 1890 requiring more

extensive physical and mental examinations, along with the

208 NEW YORK, NEW YORK

This street scene was typical of New York City’s Lower East

Side ca. 1910. In 1910, immigrants and their children—most

from eastern and southern Europe—composed about three-

quarters of the city’s population. Note the varieties of dress.

(National Archives #196-GS-369)

massive influx of immigrants—almost 5 million coming

through New York alone during the 1880s—led the federal

government to establish a new immigrant depot at E

LLIS

SLAND

in New York Harbor.

Named for its last private owner, Ellis Island had for-

merly housed a naval arsenal. It was designed to process up

to 5,000 immigrants per day. The building of the facilities

was accompanied by the creation of the office of superin-

tendent of immigration, the first formal bureaucracy

designed to deal with immigration. When an immigrant

ship arrived in New York Harbor, first- and second-class pas-

sengers were given a cursory examination on board and were

then transferred to shore. Most of them only saw the Ellis

Island facilities from a distance, unless some question had

been raised on board. “Steerage,” or third-class, passengers

were examined more carefully, though the rejection rate was

generally only 1 percent. Most immigrants were given a cur-

sory medical examination—the “six-second physical,” as it

came to be called—and had their papers checked against

shipping manifests. They were then briefly interviewed by

immigration officials working from the ship’s manifest log,

which contained the answers to 29 questions, previously

completed by the immigrant. The whole process typically

took three to five hours. Those admitted typically purchased

tickets by rail or coastal steamer to their final destinations

and were then ferried to either Manhattan or the New Jersey

shore. The small number refused entry were detained pend-

ing an appeal or deportation.

In 1897, a fire destroyed the Ellis Island processing

facilities, including many immigration records dating back

to 1855. The permanent reception center familiar now as

the National Immigration Museum was opened in 1900.

During its first year of operation, about 446,000 immigrants

landed in New York, but numbers declined significantly

through the 1890s, averaging about 231,000 per year

between 1893 and 1897. Surprising many officials, immi-

gration increased dramatically after 1898. From about

179,000 arrivals in 1898, the immigrant flow peaked in

1906–07, when almost 1.9 million landed in New York. In

1913–14, another almost 1.8 million immigrants were pro-

cessed. As a result, new dormitories, hospitals, kitchens,

and other structures were built or expanded on the island

between 1900 and 1915. By 1910, the foreign-born popu-

lation of the city was again above 40 percent. Italians

alone—more than 700,000 and mostly poor—composed 15

percent of the population. Although tens of thousands

returned to Italy every year prior to World War I (1914–18),

the majority stayed and more came besides. After decades

of struggle and loyal service in the military in World War I

and World War II (1941–45), Italians, Jews, and most other

new immigrant groups moved into the mainstream of

American cultural life.

After World War I, U.S. consulates were established

around the world and were responsible for issuing visas and

checking credentials, thus lessening the work at the port of

entry in the United States. Passage of the restrictive quota

legislation of 1921 (E

MERGENCY

UOTA

) and 1924

OHNSON

-R

EED

) also significantly reduced the num-

ber of immigrants allowed into the United States and

marked the beginning of Ellis Island’s decline as a processing

center. Whereas annual immigration averaged about

740,000 between 1903 and 1914, it dropped to about

152,000 between 1925 and 1930, and 30,000 during the

Great Depression years of the 1930s. By that time, Ellis

Island had become better known for detention than for

entry and in 1932, finally stopped receiving steerage-class

immigrants.

The third defining phase of immigration to New York

City came following the I

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONALITY

of 1965, which led to a massive and partially unex-

pected influx of Asian and Hispanic peoples. Italians still

represented the largest ethnic group in New York City in

1980, but Dominicans and Jamaicans, ranked only 26th

and 24th, respectively, in 1960, were the city’s second and

third largest ethnic groups 20 years later. Some European

groups also grew as a result of the Immigration and Nation-

ality Act. Italians, Greeks, and Portuguese took advantage

of its provisions to reunite extended families. African Amer-

icans had migrated to New York in large numbers after

World War I, but after 1965, the black population had

become increasingly immigrant. By 1990, perhaps one-

quarter or more black New Yorkers were foreign born, cre-

ating some tension between the various African-American

communities. The post–World War II era provided many

challenges for America’s largest urban area, and the state

and federal governments had to provide economic assistance

to the city in the 1970s. City finances and conditions

improved significantly during the 1980s and 1990s, though

ethnic tensions were often strained. Two events during the

late 1990s focused national attention on alleged civil rights

abuses against blacks and immigrants. In 1997, New York

police officers were accused of torturing a Haitian immi-

grant, Abner Louima, and one was eventually convicted. In

1999, a West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, was killed

when police officers mistook him for a rape suspect and shot

him. Although four officers were indicted for murder, they

were later acquitted. The terrorist attacks of S

EPTEMBER

11, 2001, on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan

dramatically affected the city’s economy, with the federal

government eventually pledging more than $24 billion for

the reconstruction of the area of the attack. Although New

York Muslims and Arabs were concerned about backlash in

the wake of the attacks, the city remained peaceful as it

pulled together in support of more than 320 firefighters and

police officers who lost their lives, in addition to the almost

3,000 civilians who died in the attack. As if to highlight the

international character of New York City, people of 80

nationalities died in the attack on the World Trade Center.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 209

Further Reading

Baylor, Ronald, and Timothy Meagher, eds. The New York Irish. Bal-

timore: J

ohns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Binder, Frederick, and David Reimers. All the Nations under Heaven:

n E

thnic and Racial History of New York City. New York:

Columbia Univ

ersity Press, 1995.

———. “New York as an Immigrant City.” In Origins and Destinies:

mmigr

ation, Race, and Ethnicity in America. Eds. Silvia Pedraza

and Rubén G. R

umbaut. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1996.

Chen, Hsiang-Shui. Chinatown No More: Taiwan Immigrants in Con-

tempor

y New York. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Chin, Ko-lin. Chinato

wn Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise, and Ethnicity.

w York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Cohen, M

iriam. Workshop to Office: Two Generations of Italian Women

New York City, 1900–1950. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University

ess, 1993.

Diner, Hasia R. Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.

rnst, R

obert. Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825–1863. 1949.

Reprint, N

ew York: Octagon Books, 1979.

Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and

ultur

e on the Lower East Side 1890–1925. New York: Monthly

Revie

w Press, 1985.

Fisher, Maxine P. The Indians of New Yor

k C

ity. Columbia, Mo.: South

Asia Books, 1980.

oner, Nancy. From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of

Immigr

ation. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002.

———, ed. New Immigrants in New Y

k. New York: Columbia Uni-

versity Press, 1987.

Friedman-Kasaba, Kathie. Memories of Migration: Gender, E

thnicity

and Work in New York, 1870–1924. Albany: State University of

w York Press, 1996.

Glazer, Nathan, and Daniel Moynihan. Beyond the Melting P

ot:

The

Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City.

2d ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970.

oodfriend, J

oyce D. Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in

Colonial New Yor

k City, 1664–1730. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

Univ

ersity Press, 1992.

Hendricks, Glen. Dominican Diaspora. New York: Teachers College

ess, 1974.

Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. Encyclopedia of New York City. New York:

New

ork Historical Society, 1995.

Kasinitz, Philip. Caribbean New York: Black Immigrants and the Poli-

tics of R

ace. I

thaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Kessner

, Thomas. The Golden Door: Italian and Jewish Mobility in New

York City, 1900–1915. N

ew York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Kim, I

llsoo. Urban Immigrants: The Korean Community in New York.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Kwong, Peter

. Chinatown, N

ew Y

ork: Labor and Politics, 1930–1950.

New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979.

———. The New Chinatown. New York: Hill and Wang, 1987.

Laguerr

e, M

ichel. American Odyssey: Haitians in New York. Ithaca,

N.Y.: Cornell Univ

ersity Press, 1984.

Lessinger, Johanna. From the Ganges to the Hudson: Indian I

mmigr

ants

in New York City. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

Lin, Jan. R

econstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change.

Minneapolis: Univ

ersity of M

innesota Press, 1998.

Margolis, M. L. Little Brazil: An Ethnography of Brazilian Immigrants

in N

ew York City. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

1994.

Mar

witz, Fran. A Community in Spite of I

tself: Soviet Jewish Emigrés

in New York. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,

1993.

Mauk, D

avid. T

he Colony That Rose from the Sea: Norwegian Maritime

igration and Community in Brooklyn, 1850–1910. Urbana:

Univ

ersity of Illinois Press and the Norwegian American Histor-

ical Society, 1997.

Min, Pyong Gap. Caught in the Middle: Korean Communities in New

rk and Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press,

1996.

———. Changes and Conflicts: Korean Immigrant Families in New

ork. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

Nadel, S

tanley. Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New

Yor

k City, 1845–80. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

Orsi, R

obert Anthony. The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Com-

munity in Italian H

arlem, 1880–1950. New Haven, Conn.: Yale

University P

ress, 1985.

Park, Kyeyoung. The Korean Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in

ew Y

ork City. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997.

Pencak, W

illiam, Selma Berrol, and Randall Miller, eds. Immigration

to N

ew York. Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1991.

Rischin, Moses. The Promised City: N

York’s Jews, 1870–1914. Cam-

bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.

Sánchez Korrol, Virginia E. From Colonia to Community: The History

of Puerto Ricans in N

York City. Updated ed. Berkeley: U

niver-

sity of California Press, 1994.

Schneider, Dorothee. Trade Unions and Community: The Ger

man

Wor

king Class in New York City. Urbana: University of Illinois

ress, 1994.

Staub, Shalom. Yemenis in New York C

ity

. Philadelphia: Balch Institute

Press, 1989.

Sutton, Constance, and Elsa Chaney, eds. Caribbean Life in New York

ity

. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1987.

Tchen, John K

uo Wei. New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and

the Shaping of A

merican Culture, 1776–1882. Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins U

niversity Press, 1999.

Waldinger, Roger. Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New

mmigr

ants in Postindustrial New York. Cambridge, Mass.: Har-

var

d University Press, 1996.

Watkins-Owens, Irma. Blood Relations: Caribbean Immigrants and the

lem Community, 1900–1930. Bloomington: Indiana Univer-

sity Pr

ess, 1996.

Winnick, Louis. New People in Old Neighborhoods: The Role of Immi-

grants in R

ejuv

enating New York’s Communities. New York: Sage

ublications, 1990.

New York colony

New Amsterdam, conquered by England in 1664, was the

heart of the Dutch commercial empire in North America

(New Netherland). The former Dutch holdings were

granted to James, Duke of York, brother of the English king

Charles II and renamed. New York included present-day

210 NEW YORK COLONY

Maine, much of the Massachusetts coast, Long Island, and

what became the N

ERSEY COLONY

. By the time of the

American Revolution (1775–83), New York was second

only to the P

ENNSYLVANIA COLONY

in its ethnic diversity.

The coastal region of the colony of New York was prob-

ably first explored by Europeans in 1524, when Giovanni da

Verrazano, an Italian serving the French government,

mapped the area. The Dutch visited the region as early as

1609 and eventually established Fort Orange (modern

Albany) in 1624 and New Amsterdam (see N

ORK

) at the mouth of the Hudson River in the fol-

lowing year. From these settlements, they created a trading

network that extended into the Hudson, Connecticut, and

Delaware River Valleys. Under the patroon system, members

of the Dutch West India Company were granted large tracts

of land in return for bringing settlers. Although the maxi-

mum number of Dutch settlers in the mid-Atlantic region

was only about 10,000, they generally enjoyed good rela-

tions with the Indians and proved difficult to dislodge during

the Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652–78). The Dutch government

was permanently ousted in 1673.

From its establishment, the area was a polyglot mixture

of Dutch, Belgians, French Huguenots, Finns, Swedes, Por-

tuguese Jews, and English. The English government allowed

the original settlers and merchants to remain in business and

granted them freedom to worship in the Dutch Reformed

tradition. Although intermarriage and long association

diminished ethnic identities, New York, along with New Jer-

sey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware (see D

ELAWARE COLONY

remained an ethnically heterogeneous region. With the dev-

astation of the European War of the Spanish Succession

(1702–14), significant numbers of German and Scots-Irish

immigrants added to the ethnic mix. Many New Yorkers

actively supported the American Revolution, but there were

strong pockets of Loyalists, particularly in New York City

and upstate. More than 30,000 eventually left the state.

Although ranked only fifth in population in 1700 (19,000)

behind Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecti-

cut, New York grew rapidly in the 18th century. By 1800,

New York City, with a population of 60,000, had overtaken

both P

HILADELPHIA

, P

ENNSYLVANIA

, and B

OSTON

, M

SACHUSETTS

, as the first city of the new republic.

Further Reading

Goodfriend, Joyce D. Beyond the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in

Colonial New

York City, 1664–1730. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

University Pr

ess, 1992.

Kammen, Michael. Colonial New York: A History. New York: Scrib-

ner

’

s, 1975.

Kim, Sung Bok. Landlord and T

enant in Colonial N

ew York: Manorial

Society, 1664–1775. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina

ess, 1978.

Merwick, Donna. Possessing A

lbany, 1630-1710: The Dutch and English

xperiences. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Rink, Oliv

er A. Holland on the Hudson: A

n Economic and Social His-

tory of Dutch New York. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,

1986.

Ritchie, R

ober

t C. The Duke’s Province: A Study of Politics and Society

in Colonial N

ew York, 1664–1691. Chapel Hill: University of

Nor

th Carolina Press, 1977.

Nicaraguan immigration

As a result of an ongoing and integral U.S. involvement with

the politics of Nicaragua from the 1850s, a unique set of cir-

cumstances has brought a variety of Nicaraguan immigrants

to the United States. According to the U.S. census of 2000,

177,684 Americans claimed Nicaraguan descent. There

were few Nicaraguans in Canada: Only 6,190 Canadians

claimed Nicaraguan descent in the 2001 census, though a

number of organizations estimate the actual figure to be

between 10,000 and 20,000. Miami was the center of

Nicaraguan life in America, although communities could be

found in most of the larger cities of California and Texas.

Nicaraguans in Canada are overwhelmingly concentrated

in Toronto, with a significant number living in Alberta.

Nicaragua occupies 46,400 square miles in Central

America. It is bordered by Honduras on the north and Costa

Rica on the south. In 2002, the population was estimated

at 4,918,393. The people were ethnically divided between

mestizos (69 percent), whites (17 percent), blacks (9 per-

cent), and several Amerindian peoples (5 percent). More

than 95 percent of Nicaraguans are Roman Catholic, reflect-

ing almost 300 years of Spanish rule. The indigenous peo-

ples of the region were conquered by Spain in 1552. Most

died of disease, were killed, or intermarried with Europeans,

creating the large mestizo population. After gaining inde-

pendence from Spain in 1821, Nicaragua was united for a

NICARAGUAN IMMIGRATION 211

U.S. Marines pose with children in Nicaragua during United

States occupation, 1927.

(National Archives #6-523779)

short period with other Central American countries as the

United Provinces of Central America before finally becom-

ing an independent republic in 1838. The United States

became directly involved in Nicaraguan politics when in

1855, American adventurer William Walker was invited to

the country to defend the ruling liberal party of General

Francisco de Castellón. Walker instead seized the govern-

ment for himself but was driven out of Nicaragua in 1857,

ushering in a long period of conservative rule. U.S. Marines

occupied the country for extensive periods between 1912

and 1933, generally in support of conservative political

movements. In 1979, the marxist Sandinista National Lib-

eration Front led a revolt that ousted dictator Anastasio

Somoza. U.S. president Ronald Reagan became increasingly

concerned about the threat of communism in “America’s

backyard” and supplied U.S. backing to the contras, forces

opposing the marxist Sandinistas, once more reviving

COLD

WAR

rivalries in the Western Hemisphere. As the Sandinistas

gradually lost power in the late 1980s, thousands of San-

dinistas and leftists fled to the United States and other coun-

tries of Central America.

It is difficult to document early immigration, as

Nicaraguans were not counted apart from other Central

Americans until 1960. Because of American involvement in

Nicaragua, the United States was most often the choice of

political dissidents or those fleeing political uncertainty. Dur-

ing the 1930s, many business and professional people also

entered the country, settling in New York City, New Orleans,

San Francisco, and Los Angeles. By the mid-1960s,

Nicaraguans were the largest Central American national

group in the United States and even more began to immi-

grate as a result of the 1965 I

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONAL

ITY

. In 1970, there were almost 30,000 Nicaraguans in

the United States, most of European descent. The revolu-

tion of 1979 brought 20,000 or more Somoza supporters to

the United States, and most of these settled in and around

Miami. As civil war and a U.S. trade embargo destroyed the

economy during the 1980s, young Nicaraguan men espe-

cially began to seek refuge and opportunity in the United

States, many entering the country illegally. The I

MMIGRA

TION AND

ATURALIZATION

ERVICE

estimated the undoc-

umented population to be 76,000 in 1995, though some

estimates suggest a figure twice as high. Under provisions of

the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief

Act, in 1997, about 150,000 Nicaraguans were allowed to

remain and work in the country, with many of them eventu-

ally becoming permanent residents. Between 1992 and 2002,

legal immigration averaged about 10,000 annually.

There were almost no Nicaraguans in Canada until the

mid-1980s, but their numbers steadily increased after 1983.

In 1991 and 1992 alone, more than 3,500 were admitted.

Most Nicaraguans were young and poorly educated and had

often lived for some time in Honduras, Costa Rica, or the

United States. In 2001, of 9,380 Nicaraguan immigrants liv-

ing in Canada, only 170 came before 1981. About 88 per-

cent (8,255) arrived between 1981 and 1995, most as

refugees.

Further Reading

Fisher, Marc. “Home, Sweetwater, Home.” Mother Jones 13, no. 10

(December 1988): 35–40.

unkhouser, Edward. “Migration from Nicaragua: Some Recent Evi-

dence.” World Development, 20, no. 8 (1992): 1,209–1,218.

mmigration and Naturalization Service. Nicaraguan Adjustment and

Centr

al American Relief Act, 1997. Washington, D.C.: Govern-

ment Printing O

ffice, 1998.

Leslie, Leigh A. “Families Fleeing War: The Case of Central Ameri-

cans.” Marriage and Family Review 19, nos. 1–2 (1993):

193–205.

enjívar, Cecilia. “Salvadorans and Nicaraguans: Refugees Become

Workers.” In Illegal Immigration in America: A Reference Hand-

book. Eds. David Haines and Karen E. Rosenblum. Westport,

Conn.: Gr

eenwood Press, 1999.

Merrill, Tim, ed. Nicaragua: A Country Study. 3d ed. Baton Rouge,

La.: Claitors, 1995.

Simmons, Alan. “Latin American I

mmigration to Canada: N

ew Link-

ages in the Hemispheric Migration and Refugee Flow System.”

International Journal 48, no. 2 (1993): 289–309.

Nigerian immigration

Nigeria is the number one source country for West African

immigrants coming to the United States and is second to

Ghana for immigration to Canada. In the U.S. census of

2000 and the Canadian census of 2001, 165,481 Americans

and 9,530 Canadians claimed Nigerian descent. Nigerians

live throughout the United States, but the greatest concen-

trations are found in Texas, California, and New York. Most

Canadian Nigerians live in Ontario.

Nigeria occupies 351,200 square miles on the southern

coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Benin on the west,

Niger on the north, and Chad and Cameroon on the east.

The population of Nigeria, estimated at 126,635,626 in

2002, is divided both ethnically and religiously. There are 10

major ethnic groups and almost 250 smaller ones, the largest

being the Yoruba (17.5 percent), the Hausa (17.2 percent),

the Ibo (or Igbo, 13.3 percent), and the Fulani (10.7 per-

cent). Christians and Muslims each make up about 45 per-

cent of the population, with the former concentrated in the

south and the latter in the north. Although the Portuguese

first visited Nigeria in the 15th century, the region remained

under the control of hundreds of tribes until the 1860s,

when Great Britain began to extend its influence inland

from coastal trading ports. By 1903, British control was vir-

tually complete, and by 1914, the approximate borders of

the modern country had been established. Nigeria gained its

independence in 1960. After a brief period of civilian rule,

a series of coups, assassinations, and the secession of the state

of Biafra in 1966 led to one of the bloodiest civil wars on the

212 NIGERIAN IMMIGRATION

continent. By the time Biafra was subdued in 1970, some 2

million Nigerians had died. The country remained one of

the most corrupt and politically unstable throughout the

20th century.

Apart from the descendants of slaves who had been

brought to the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries (see

FRICAN FORCED MIGRATION

), there were almost no Nige-

rians in the United States prior to the 1970s. Between World

War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45), a number of

Nigerian nationalists traveled to and were sometimes edu-

cated in the United States. These included Nnamdi Azikiwe,

first president of Nigeria, who studied at Lincoln Univer-

sity in Pennsylvania and Howard University in Washing-

ton, D.C. The numbers of Nigerians remained small,

however, never totaling more than 30. The oil boom of the

1970s enabled Nigeria to send an increasing number of stu-

dents abroad for education. During the late 1970s and

1980s, Nigeria was among the top six countries sending stu-

dents to the United States. With the sharp decline of the

Nigerian economy in the 1980s, an increasing number of

Nigerians stayed in the United States and eventually brought

their families to join them. As a result, between 1990 and

2000, the Nigerian-American population grew from 91,688

to 165,481. Between 1992 and 2002, immigration from

Nigeria averaged almost 7,000 per year. Many Nigerians are

well educated and have thus spread widely throughout the

country following professional and academic careers.

It is difficult to ascertain the number of Nigerians who

immigrated to Canada prior to 1973 because they were pre-

viously included in a general African category. There was,

however, already a small stream of refugees from the civil

war of the 1960s. Of 8,850 Nigerian immigrants in Canada

in 2001, 240 came before 1971. Between 1971 and 1990,

another 2,385 arrived. The rate of immigration increased

significantly in the 1990s. Between 1991 and 2001, 70 per-

cent of the Nigerian immigrant population arrived in

Canada. During the 1980s, Nigeria was sometimes in the

top 10 source countries sending students to Canadian uni-

versities. Many have stayed to work in the civil service,

medicine, law, engineering, or other professional areas.

Further Reading

Anigbo, C. A. “The African Neo-D

iaspora: Dynamics and Prospects

for Afrocentrism and Counterpenetration.” Ph.D. diss., Howard

University, 1994.

Apraku, K. K. African Emigres in the United States. New York: Praeger,

1991.

kime, Obaro, ed. Groundwork of Nigerian History. Portsmouth, N.H.:

Heinemann, 1999.

Makinwa-A

debusoye, P. K. “Emigration Dynamics in West Africa.”

International Migration 33, nos. 3–4 (1995): 435–467.

ffoha, Marcellina U. Educated Nigerian Settlers in the United States:

The Phenomenon of Brain Drain. Philadelphia: Temple Univ

ersity

Press, 1989.

Shepard, Robert B. Nigeria, Africa, and the United S

tates: From Kennedy

to Reagan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Speer

, T. “The Newest African Americans.” American Demographics 16

(1994): 9–10.

dofia, P

aul E. Nigerians in the United States: Potentialities and Crises.

Boston: William Monroe Trotter Institute, 1996.

North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA)

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of

1994 created a unified mar

ket of more than 370 million

people with goods and services totaling $6.5 trillion annu-

ally. The elimination of tariffs was scheduled to occur over a

15-year period, though most were eliminated in the first five

years. In 1994, the free-trade area was second only to the

European Union in terms of value of goods and services.

After heated debate, especially in the United States and

Canada, NAFTA was signed by the presidents of the United

States, Mexico, and Canada on December 17, 1992. Advo-

cates of the agreement argued that the total number of jobs

would increase in all three countries and that the free move-

ment of goods and services would result in lower costs. They

also suggested that the creation of more and better jobs in

Mexico would lessen the undocumented immigration into

the United States. Many environmental and labor groups in

the United States and Canada vigorously opposed the treaty,

fearing the loss of well-paid jobs to Mexico and degradation

of the environment as companies moved south. The mea-

sure was ratified by the legislatures of all three countries in

1993 and took effect on January 1, 1994.

Under NAFTA provisions, temporary admission

restrictions were eased on business visitors, professionals,

intracompany transferees, and traders and investors moving

between countries. Cross-border truck traffic was also liber-

alized, although it was again tightened following the terror-

ist attacks of S

EPTEMBER

11, 2001, and continued to be

examined in light of several 2003 incidents involving the

deaths of illegal Mexican immigrants being smuggled into

the United States in trucks.

Further Reading

Cameron, Maxwell A., and Brian W. Thompson. The Making of

NAFTA: How the D

eal Was Done. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ

er-

sity Press, 2000.

Caulfield, Norman. Mexican Workers and the State: From Porfiriato to

NAFTA. Ft. Wor

th: Texas Christian University Press, 1998.

Martin, Philip L. Trade and Migration: NAFTA and Agriculture. Wash-

ington, D.C.: Institute for I

nternational Economics, 1993.

North Carolina colony See C

AROLINA COLONIES

Northern Ireland See U

LSTER

NORTHERN IRELAND 213