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Preface
In Facts About
American Immigration, we have supplied a highly specific,
substantial body of information and insight on the greatest migration
in human history—the massive, worldwide emigration to what is now
the United States that has been a major feature of world history for
more than five centuries and continues today. To place that
immigration in its full context, we have necessarily gone back to the
First Americans, the Asian peoples who crossed the Bering Land Bridge
into Alaska, probably by 12,000 to 15,000 B.C., though some believe
that human settlement of the Americas came much earlier.
We have focused here on
who came to the lands that became the United States and from where,
their reasons for coming, the nature of their journey, where they
settled, and the many efforts made to stop or divert them.
To that end, we have
opened the book with general materials (Part I), to place the whole
process of immigration in a wide historical context. These materials
include an overview of immigration; a survey of the efforts to
restrict immigration; a portrait of the immigrant journey over the
centuries, including the passage through places such as Castle Garden,
The Shed, Ellis Island, and Angel Island; a discussion of Native
Americans and immigration; and a chronology of immigration. This
section includes extensive statistical materials, which summarize in
tables and graphs key information about overall immigration to the
United States.
Following that section
is the largest portion of the book (Parts II–VI), which is divided
by region: Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Each part
begins with a brief introduction to the region, followed by a series
of articles focusing on specific countries or groups of countries
within that region. Articles include tables and graphs that summarize
and portray statistical information relating to that group's
immigration, as well as specific Internet and print resources. Each
regional section concludes with tables and graphs summarizing the
pattern of immigration from the region, plus regional Internet and
print resources.
At the back of the book
are two other sections. Part VII offers tables of annual immigration
statistics covering the period 1820 to 1996. These are followed by
extensive general notes about the immigration statistics used in the
book.
Note that the tables in
Part VII are drawn directly from the official figures generated by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. However, almost all of the
other tables and graphs in this book are new; they have been developed
by the authors especially for this work, drawing on Immigration and
Naturalization Service data and U.S. Census Bureau data, some of which
is not otherwise readily available. The result is a detailed picture,
in tabular and graphic form, of the pattern of immigration from each
country and region covered and of how it fits into the overall
emigration to the United States.
Note also that the
statistics in the body of the book run through 1996; that is because,
at the time the book was being completed (Spring 1999), those were the
latest official immigration figures available from the U.S.
government. However, the statistics in Part VII have been updated
through 1998, using the most current official immigration statistics
available as of mid-2001. Although these figures arrived too late to
be incorporated into the body of the book, readers will be able to
find the most recent immigration data available on any nation or
region of interest in Part VII. Updates to these immigration
statistics are published annually by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, but (as the above indicates) the volumes are
often two or even three years behind.
The final section of
the book (Appendixes) begins with general Internet and print resources
on immigration. This is followed by other useful immigration-related
information, largely derived from government resources, including a
summary of immigration and naturalization legislation, a discussion of
estimates of emigration and illegal immigration, and tips on
genealogical research. To the latter, we have appended a list of
Internet and print resources for budding family historians and amateur
genealogists. A glossary of immigration terms follows the Appendices.
Note that throughout
the book, print resources have been listed in alphabetical order, in
long lists grouped alphabetically under thematic subheads for ease of
use. Internet resources, however, are listed in order of likely
general usefulness, with the most wide-ranging Web sites listed first.
These are also categorized under thematic subheads where a list
includes many Internet resources.
Readers seeking
information about specific countries or regions can look either at the
detailed table of contents or in the index at the back of the book.
Full lists of all the tables and graphs—well over 400 of them—also
appear in the front of the book, following this Preface.
Our thanks, as always,
to the librarians of the northeastern library network, and especially
to the staff of the Chappaqua Library, in particular director Mark
Hasskarl; the expert reference staff, including Martha Alcott,
Maryanne Eaton, Carolyn Jones, Jane Peyraud, Paula Peyraud, Carolyn
Reznick, and Michele Capozzella; and the circulation staff, headed by
Marilyn Coleman and later Barbara Le Sauvage.
Our thanks also to the
many people at H.W. Wilson—especially director of general
publications Michael Schulze; former editor Hilary Claggett; editors
Lynn Messina, Norris Smith, Gray Young, and Richard Stein; and the
whole production staff—who helped see this work through from
manuscript to published book; to Dan Essex, Reference Librarian at the
U.S. Census Bureau, for locating for us some materials that were not
otherwise generally available; to picture researcher Susan Hormuth;
and to computer consultant Jim Mayers.
David M.
Brownstone
Irene M. Franck
August 2001
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