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Chances are you or someone you know has moved to a new home or a new community. Maybe you’ve even moved to a new country or continent.
People move, or migrate, for many reasons. Bad problems may push people to leave their homes. Exciting new chances may pull them away. Many people have migrated to or within the United States. Since its start, the U.S. has been a home for dreams of possibility.
Forced Migration
Dateline Africa, 1619–1859
People migrate for many reasons. Most do so by choice, but not all. From 1619 to 1859, more than 10 million Africans were forced onto ships. Conditions on the ships were horrible. The people were sold into slavery after coming to America. Despite this terrible start, they made important contributions to our country. Their descendants continue to do so today.
Push
Dateline Ireland, 1845–1851: The Potato Famine
A fungus known as potato blight created the Irish Potato Famine. Two million acres of potatoes rotted. Almost 1 million people died as the food shortage spread across Ireland. Nearly 1 million went to the United States. Many settled in Boston and New York City. The Irish were the first large group of immigrants to come to the United States in the nineteenth century.
Pull
Dateline California, 1849: Gold Fever
Gold! That was the call. It came from Sutter’s Mill in Sacramento and spread like fever. Like gold fever! Drawn by the idea of easy riches, people from all over the United States and Mexico went to California. They also came from Europe, South America, and even China. They came by ship and by land. They hiked the famous California Trail over the Rocky Mountains. The population of California increased from 164,000 people in 1848 to almost 400,000 in 1852.
Dateline the West, 1862–1869: The Transcontinental Railroad
It was a race. Which company could lay the most railroad track? Would it be the Central Pacific, working east from Sacramento, California? Or the Union Pacific, working west from Omaha, Nebraska? The promise of work brought 12,000 Chinese immigrants to the Central Pacific line. They were treated badly, but they played a major role in building the railroad. And the trains would make it easier to settle the West.
Dateline the Great Plains, 1931–1939: The Dust Bowl
Years of terrible drought turned soil to dust. The Great Plains became a huge dust bowl. This came along with the Depression. That was the country’s worst economic slump ever. Millions of people from Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico migrated. They went west to find work. About 200,000 settled in California. That was one of the largest migrations in U.S. history. John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of one family’s travels from Oklahoma.
The Great Migration
▲ Research shows that our oldest human ancestors lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago. From there, some migrated to Asia. Then they went to Indonesia and Australia. They finally got to Europe about 40,000 years ago. But how did people ever reach North and South America?
▲ Beringia was an ancient, great land bridge. More than 15,000 years ago, it connected eastern Siberia and western Alaska. Some people think that the land bridge let humans cross into North America. They were hunting herds of reindeer and mammoths. If so, these humans were the first Americans. Then the climate warmed. Sea levels rose, and Beringia was flooded. The first Americans became cut off on their new continent.
Migration within the United States continues. As always, the reasons are varied. For example, from 1975 to 2007, the population of Silicon Valley in northern California nearly doubled. People moved there to fill a lot of new technology jobs. On the other hand, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. The city suffered much flooding and damage. More than 100,000 people migrated away.
Migration to the United States also continues. ▼
Total number of immigrants to the United States from various countries:
(Source: 2010 U.S. Census)
Think Piece!
Often, migration means moving to a new culture as well as to a new region or country. Think about it. What might be the benefits of migration? What might be the drawbacks?
