?The United States has long been known as nation of immigrants, or a nation of nations. Originally populated by American Indians, the United States has experienced several major waves of immigration: Eastern European colonists in the 1700s (mainly from England), Northern Europeans in the 1800s, Southern Europeans in the early 1900s, and mainly South Americans, Asians, and Africans after 1965.出国移民公司http://www.zlglobal.net/兆龙移民是十大移民公司之一,拥有专业移民律师团队,专注于美国移民,加拿大移民,欧洲移民，希腊移民等项目,创立至今已服务万余家庭,EB-1A,NIW移民更是不成功不收费,是值得信赖的移民机构。
?When Columbus arrived in the 15th?century, there were perhaps 10 million people called Indians.The Westward Movement meant the destruction of the Native American. Today there are about 2.9 million American Indians in the United States. Immigration began in the 1500s with the Spanish and French, and continued in the 1600s and 1700s with the Dutch, English, and Scottish. In addition to the Pilgrim Fathers(White Anglo-Saxons), there were also around 50,000 original colonists from England who came as indentured servant (契约奴), together with the proximate 20,000 black slaves brought to North America.
After the early periods of settlement, the first sharp increase in immigration took place in the 1830s and 1840s. English oppression and the Potato Famine(爱尔兰大饥荒) drove 1.5 million Irishmen from their homeland to the United States in the decade of 1845---1854. In the 1870s and 1890s, a wave of refugees left the political turmoil of Eastern and Southern Europe to seek freedom in America, forming another tremendous tide of immigration in the United States.
?Most Chinese immigrants started to arrive in large numbers during the California Gold Rush (淘金热)of the 1850s, and in the 1860s, more Chinese labors went to work building the Transcontinental Railway(横贯大陆铁路).When the Gold Rush was over and the construction of the railroads was completed, the Chinese labors became unemployed and were turned to the labor market with low wages. Soon there emerged a wide spread of hostility towards the Chinese labors. In May 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act(《排华法案》) was passed to stop Chinese immigration for 10 years. Discriminated against in housing and hiring practices, the Chinese immigrants formed Chinatown in major West Coast cities and succeeded in entrepreneurial endeavors such as restaurants and laundries.
For a long period, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WAPS) controlled the government and politics, and a large number of immigrants was viewed as a threat to basic American values. Thus, Immigration Act(《移民法案》) of 1924 was passed to restrict further immigration. But in 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments(《移民与国籍法修正案》) gave an equal chance to foreigners seeking entry into the United States regardless of their nations, which started the final wave of immigration.
