page_title: Immigration to the United States
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Immigration to the United States / History
caption_attribution_description: New York - Welcome to the land of freedom - An ocean steamer passing the Statue of Liberty: Scene on the steerage deck / from a sketch by a staff artist.
context_page_description: Immigration to the United States is the international movement of non-U.S. nationals in order to reside permanently in the country. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the U.S. history. Because the United States is a settler colonial society, all Americans, with the exception of the small percentage of Native Americans, can trace their ancestry to immigrants from other nations around the world.
  In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the U.S. population. Some other countries have larger proportions of immigrants, such as Switzerland with 24.9% and Canada with 21.9%.
  According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted a total of 1.18 million legal immigrants in 2016.
context_section_description: American immigration history can be viewed in four epochs: the colonial period, the mid-19th century, the start of the 20th century, and post-1965. Each period brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States.
caption: Immigrants on ocean steamer passing the Statue of Liberty, New York City, 1887
exif: {}