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The United States is not the only nation of immigrants. Central and South America, Canada, Australia, and Israel are also rich with immigrants and their descendants.
Many places were colonized by European nations and had many European immigrants. Colonial rule of one nation by another has all but disappeared, but international migration is still going strong. It’s estimated that about 125 million people now live outside the country of their birth. About 20 percent are refugees. They have been forced out of their homes by persecution, war, or natural disaster. Let’s look at immigrants around the world.
Immigrants from one country to another often move into one type of business or industry. Many Chinese immigrants have become middlemen in Southeast Asian nations. Middlemen are retailers, moneylenders, and financiers. The Chinese represent only about 10 percent of the population in these countries. But they have at times owned or run most of the businesses in certain industries. ▶
▲ Between 1820 and 1865, many freed slaves left the U.S. to emigrate to Liberia. That’s a country on the west coast of Africa. In 1847 they formed a government, making Liberia the first republic in Africa.
In the nineteenth century, Europeans emigrated all over the globe. They moved to the colonies that their countries ruled. Today, many former colonies send immigrants back to the European countries that once ruled them. Many Algerians have settled in France. The United Kingdom takes in Commonwealth residents from Africa, Asia, and the West Indies. ▼
▲ In 1986, Pakistan had more refugees than any other nation on Earth. Most had fled from war and political upheaval in Afghanistan. That war-torn country shares a border with Pakistan. Between them, Pakistan and Iran gave shelter to about 5 million Afghani refugees.
◀ Brazilians are among the most ethnically diverse people in the world. Early Portuguese colonists mixed with Native Americans and enslaved Africans. Dutch and French people colonized the northeast. In the last century, German, Italian, Polish, and Japanese immigrants added to the ethnic mix. In 1908, 165 Japanese families arrived in Brazil to work on coffee farms. Today, about 1.8 million people of Japanese descent live there.
After World War II, the nation of Israel was created. It was to be a homeland for Jews from all over the world. American Jews who have immigrated to Israel often celebrate U.S. holidays, such as the Fourth of July. So do American immigrants all over the world! ▶
“When I think about my life back home, it feels like thousands of insects crawling around under my skin, and it is impossible to sleep.”
—14-year-old Ethiopian refugee
◀ Not all immigrants leave home by choice. Wars, natural disasters, and slavery drive many to emigrate. Of the 50 million refugees in the world today, about half are children. They travel alone or in groups on dangerous journeys to safety in other countries.
ILLUSTRIOUS IMMIGRANT
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
In 1893, Mohandas Gandhi left his native India for South Africa, another colony of the British Crown. He planned to work for an Indian lawyer there for a year and then go home. But he stayed for 31 years. He was shocked by the way white South Africans treated Indians. He led a campaign of nonviolent resistance to discrimination. He later used the same strategy to win India’s independence from Great Britain.
