History Main / AnImmigrantsTale

An Immigrant's Tale is the story of an immigrant, or their whole family, or a refugee, coping with life in a new nation with a different culture. A common setting is late 19th or early 20th century America, with a heavy emphasis on UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, but the trope works in any time and country. The happy version is a RagsToRiches story, where the immigrant arrives with only their clothes, but then through hard work and entrepreneurial risk-taking, they make a lot of money. The grittier, realistic version, especially in modern works, is to depict the immigrant's struggles with poverty and discrimination.

An Immigrant's Tale is the story of an immigrant, or their whole family, or a refugee, coping with life in a new nation with a different culture. A common setting is late 19th or early 20th century America, with a heavy emphasis on UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, but the trope works in any time and country. The typical example is a RagsToRiches story, where the immigrant arrives with only their clothes, but then through hard work and entrepreneurial risk-taking, they make money.

An Immigrant's Tale is the story of an immigrant, or their whole family, or a refugee, coping with life in a new nation with a different culture.

A common setting is late 19th or early 20th century America, with a heavy emphasis on UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, but the trope works in any time and country. A recent theme is the plight of illegal aliens and migrant workers from Mexico working in America, and Africans and Middle Eastern refugees and migrants in Europe.

An Immigrant's Tale is simply the story of an immigrant, an immigrant family, or a refugee, coping with life in a new nation.

A very common setting is late 19th or early 20th century America, with a heavy emphasis on UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, but the trope works in any time and country. A recent theme is the plight of illegal aliens and migrant workers from Mexico working in America, and Africans and Middle Easterners in Europe.

* Art/StatueOfLiberty: She was specifically placed on a harbor in Bedloe's Island to serve as a grandiose and reassuring greeting to any immigrant seeking a better life in the US.

* "Budweiser - Born the Hard Way" is a commercial telling the tale of how Adolphus Busch left his native Germany to travel to America, facing hardship and anti-immigration prejudice to make his fortune, all the while carrying a notebook detailing his plans for the beer he wants to manufacture. Upon surviving a steamboat fire on the Mississippi and trekking into St. Louis, Missouri, [[FateDrivesUsTogether he shares his musings with another German national at a local bar -- Eberhart Anheuser]].

* Creator/FranzKafka's ''Amerika'' tells the story of a young man's journey to a twisted version of America where the Statue of Liberty holds a sword.

* ''TheFortunatePilgrim'' by Mario Puzo. Yes, that Mario Puzo. He actually bemoaned how people preferred [[Film/TheGodfather a gangster story full of violence]] than the pains and joys of a single mother raising alone her kids in a foreign country.

* NeverFoundTheBody:

* In ''Fanfic/PokemonCrossingFlyMeToTheMoon'', two of the main characters (Holly and Kidd) are immigrants from another region (Unova and Kalos, respectively). In the beginning of the story, they already moved into the Hoenn region, but the story follows them getting used to Hoennian culture.

* "The Great American Melting Pot" from ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock''

* In ''Fanfic/PokemonCrossingFlyMeToTheMoon'', two of the main characters (Benedict and Kidd) are immigrants from another region (Unova and Kalos, respectively). In the beginning of the story, they already moved into the Hoenn region, but the story follows them getting used to Hoennian culture.

%% Commented out for being ZCE * ''VanishingSon''

* ''Girl in Translation'', by Jean Kwok, is about a girl named Kimberly and her mother immigrating to Brooklyn sometime in TheEighties.
* ''Vita'', by Melania Mazzucco, tells the story of two Italian immigrants arriving in New York as children in the early 20th century.

%%* ''Literature/TheJungle''

* "America" by Creator/NeilDiamond

* In ''Literature/IslandBeneathTheSea''
most of the main characters are Black Haitians, white Frenchmen and Spaniards. After the Haitian revolution they migrate to Louisiana, which soon ends up joining the U.S.

* ''Literature/ZaraHossainIsHere'': Zara's family are Pakistani Muslim immigrants living in the US trying to secure them permanent residence. She and they face a lot of Islamahobia/racism, especially as they're in Texas among conservative neighbors. This is a main theme of the book.

* "America" by Neil Diamond

* ''VanishingSon''
* ''Series/HalfwayAcrossTheGalaxyAndTurnLeft'' metaphorically captures the migrant experience of kids by portraying an alien family settling on Earth as refugees. It deals with the everyday such as the kids settling into school, and their fear that the regime they've escaped will catch up with them (in the TV version it does, differing from the book its based on).
* ''Series/WelcomeToSweden''.

* ''Film/RugglesOfRedGap'' doesn't start out as this, as Ruggles comes to America against his will--he's an English valet who was gambled away to an American tourist--but he becomes enchanted by the people in the little town of Red Gap, and by the new country he's in, rattling off the Gettysburg Address from memory to the delight of the townsfolk.

* ''Literature/TheJungle''

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' tells the tale of FunnyAnimal mice immigrating to America at the Turn of the Century.