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Immigration Polish/Russian
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Introduction

The Russian Empire in 1890.
The Russian Empire in 1890

The story of immigration from the Russian Empire is almost too complex to tell. In the 19th century, Russia was the largest country in the world—it reached from the Baltic to the Pacific, and covered substantial portions of both Europe and Asia.

The population of the Empire was extremely diverse and included the peoples of dozens of conquered nations— Belarussians and Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Bukharans, Uzbeks and Azerbaijanis. Issues of national identity were rarely clear. Borders were uncertain, the census was unreliable, and many of the subjugated nations clung to their own group identities, refusing to call themselves Russians.

To learn more about the ethnic diversity of the Russian Empire, visit The Empire That Was Russia.

By the end of the 19th century, this vast country was on the verge of an era of tumultuous change and suffered from overpopulation, widespread famines and political unrest. Many of the Empire’s peoples found it impossible to stay any longer and joined the great worldwide migration of the last decades of the century. Within a few decades, the Empire would be overthrown in a socialist revolution, then torn apart by years of war.

Three of the groups to join the exodus were the Russians, the Poles and the Jewish people of Eastern Europe. All three groups took different paths, but their journeys would soon bring them to America.



 

Introduction | Russian Beginnings | Soviet Exiles | The Nation of Polonia
A People at Risk | The Lower East Side | A Cultural Renaissance

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  last updated 08/09/04 view basic version
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Irish
1790 The federal government requires two years of residency for naturalization
1864 Congress legalizes the importation of contract laborers
1819 Congress establishes reporting on immigration
1885   Congress bans the admission of contract laborers.
1948   The United States admits persons fleeing persecution in their native lands; allowing 205,000 refugees to enter within two years
1952 Immigration and Nationality Act: individuals of all races eligible for naturalization; reaffirms national origins quota system, limits immigration from Eastern Hemisphere; establishes preferences for skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens; and tightens security and screening standards and procedures
1953 Congress amends 1948 refugee policy to allow for the admission of 200,000 more refugees
1980   The Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees
1986   Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalizes illegal aliens residing in the U.S. unlawfully since 1982.
1929   Congress makes annual immigration quotas permanent
1860 Poland’s religious and economic conditions prompt the immigration of approximately two million Poles by 1914.
1881 The assassination of Czar Alexander II prompts civil unrest and economic instability throughout Russia.
1882 Russia’s May Laws severely restrict ability of Jewish citizens to live and work in Russia. Russia’s instability prompts more than three million Russians to immigrate to the U.S.
Native American