History UsefulNotes / MeltingPot

* The '''Mexican-Americans''' became one of the first major ethnic groups of the USA after it conquered nearly half of the territory of Mexico during the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar. Texas and California are home to the largest communities of Mexican-Americans, partly due to them being populous territories of Mexico before the USA annexed them, and partly from newer immigrants who come to the USA to work as laborers. There is still a bit of a divide between established, "old money" Mexican-Americans and newer immigrants. A later group fled the Mexican economic crisis that lasted from 1982 to 1996. Most Latin Americans in general come to America looking for work. Most use the American work visa programs like H1-B and H1-A, working in blue collar professions, although many are paid below the federal minimum wage and are exploited for cheap labor. There are also a great many fleeing the drug wars raging in Mexico and Central America.

->''"Give me your tired, your poor,\\
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,\\
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.\\
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,\\
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"''
-->-- "The New Colossus" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vt-r8Vi-5g narration]] courtesy of Civilization V

* In many major cities, there is a sizeable '''Caribbean-American''' community, made up of the migrating descendants of the Africans that were forcefully brought to the Caribbean. Many of these, coming from the former British Caribbean, are of partial Indian (as in from the Subcontinent) descent, their ancestors having gone to the Caribbean after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire as semi-voluntary indentured laborers and later married the African ex-slaves and their descendants.[[note]]Example: a certain [[Music/NickiMinaj Onika Tanya Maraj]].[[/note]]

* '''American Jews''' mostly fled from various pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as coming over after The Holocaust.
* '''Polish-Americans''' fled from the chronic poverty and oppression of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]]. This is also true of a number of other peoples subject to the Russian Empire (e.g. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and Russians).

* The '''Mexican-Americans''' came to the USA as cheap labor. A later group fled the Mexican economic crisis that lasted from 1982 to 1996. Most Latin Americans in general come to America looking for work. There are also a great many fleeing the drug wars raging in Mexico.
* The '''Italian-Americans''' mostly came to escape poverty, but a sizable number of them were actually [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence people from the southern Kingdom of Two Sicilies escaping the Sardinian-led unification]].

->''Lovely Lady Liberty\\

* The '''[[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish-Americans]]''' fled famine and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. More recently, since the "Celtic Tiger" of the 90s and 00s crashed and burned during the Great Recession, young Irish people have increasingly come to the US--often as bartenders, usually on the East Coast or in Chicago--where the economic climate is slightly less crappy than Europe.

Contrary to the common portrayal in many non-American media, "American" is not an ethnic group. The United States is not a nation with one predominating ancestry. According to the most recent census information, the largest ethnic groups in the USA are: "German" (15.2%), "African" (12.9%) "Irish" (10.9%), and "English" (8.7%). Of course, as these figures are self-reported, they should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, most demographers believe that the actual number of English Americans is considerably higher than the census figures indicate.

Note that this is a different attitude from the equally variegated next-door-neighbor country of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Rather than a melting-pot, Canada promotes "multiculturalism"; the idea is that rather than everybody adapting the Canadian culture, the cultures remain and the only thing that is adapted are Canadian "values" (such as democracy, freedom, and other vague-sounding terms). The success of this approach compared to the "melting-pot"-- or if there is any difference on the ground whatever between the approaches-- is the subject of [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment intense debate]] [[CulturalPosturing and many shouted insults]].

Note that this is a different attitude from the equally variegated next-door-neighbor country of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Rather than a melting-pot, Canada promotes "multiculturalism"; the idea is that rather than everybody adapting the Canadian culture, the cultures remain and the only thing that is adapted are Canadian "values" (such as democracy, freedom, and other vague-sounding terms). The success of this approach compared to the "melting-pot"-- or [[NotSoDifferent if there is any difference on the ground whatever between the approaches]]--is the subject of [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment intense debate]] [[CulturalPosturing and many shouted insults]].

* The first '''African-Americans''' were forcibly brought over as slaves. Recently, there are growing communities of African immigrants who are fleeing violence and poverty. These new immigrants, unlike most African-Americans, have no connection to slavery or the [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Jim Crow]] era, but they do marry into the older community with some regularity. [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama The child of one such immigrant]] (who married into the "original" African-American community) was later elected and reelected President of the United States.

* The first African-Americans were forcibly brought over as slaves. Recently, there are growing communities of African immigrants who are fleeing violence and poverty. These new immigrants, unlike most African-Americans, have no connection to slavery or the [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Jim Crow]] era, but they do marry into the older community with some regularity. [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama The child of one such immigrant]] (who married into the "original" African-American community) was later elected and reelected President of the United States.
* In many major cities, there is a sizable Caribbean-American community, made up of the migrating descendants of the Africans that were forcefully brought to the Caribbean. Many of these, coming from the former British Caribbean, are of partial Indian (as in from the Subcontinent) descent, their ancestors having gone to the Caribbean after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire as semi-voluntary indentured laborers and later married the African ex-slaves and their descendants.[[note]]Example: a certain [[Music/NickiMinaj Onika Tanya Maraj]].[[/note]]
* The Chinese-Americans originally came to work on the transcontinental railroad and in the gold mines. Although Chinese immigration was banned from 1882 to 1943, the Chinese-American population has consistently grown, with immigrants moving to the United States primarily for education and work.
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish-Americans]] fled famine and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. More recently, since the "Celtic Tiger" of the 90s and 00s crashed and burned during the Great Recession, young Irish people have increasingly come to the US--often as bartenders, usually on the East Coast or in Chicago--where the economic climate is slightly less crappy than Europe.
* The German-Americans mostly came for economic reasons, particularly dislocation during the industrialization of Germany. A particularly famous wave came over for political reasons in the late 1840s. This wave was composed mainly of young-to-middle-aged intellectuals, professionals, and revolutionaries, who had seen the Revolution of 1848 that they had supported crash and burn and decided to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere get out of Germany before anyone could hurt them]]. These "Forty-Eighters" often found prominent positions in society, industry, politics, and the arts in the new country, and were heavily invested in liberal causes like abolitionism, labor reform, and opposition to nativism, becoming among the staunchest supporters of the Union in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar as a result.
* The many Dutch-Americans also moved for economic reasons, although others, followers of the ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Pillarisation}} gereformeerde]]'' movement of Abraham Kuyper, came because they felt that the Netherlands was becoming too secular (these people settled in West UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}). A lot of Dutch-Americans were here before the English, particularly in New York and New Jersey (which were formerly New Netherland). They came for many reasons, but usually to get rich. The New Netherland Dutch became a powerful and wealthy constituency in the US (for instance, the first person of non-British descent to hold the Presidency was UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, a Dutchman from Upstate New York);[[note]]His predecessors had been 4-5 Englishmen, 1-2 Welshmen (Jefferson and maybe Adams), and an Ulster Scotsman[[/note]] a disproportionate amount of New York [[BlueBlood Old Money]] are Dutch (hence the [[ForgottenTrope long-forgotten joke]] about "[[GrandeDame Mrs. Van Whoozis]].")
* American Jews mostly fled from various pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as coming over after The Holocaust.
* Polish-Americans fled from the chronic poverty and oppression of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]]. This is also true of a number of other peoples subject to the Russian Empire (e.g. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and Russians).
* The Cuban-Americans mostly fled Castro.[[note]]As a result, most are vehement supporters of the Republican Party--which takes a harder line against the Castro regime--unlike most other Latinos.[[/note]]
* The Vietnamese-Americans fled the end of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
* Some other European-Americans fled UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* The Mexican-Americans came to the USA as cheap labor. A later group fled the Mexican economic crisis that lasted from 1982 to 1996. Most Latin Americans in general come to America looking for work. There are also a great many fleeing the drug wars raging in Mexico.
* The Italian-Americans mostly came to escape poverty, but a sizable number of them were actually [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfItalianIndependence people from the southern Kingdom of Two Sicilies escaping the Sardinian-led unification]].
* The Arab-Americans are mostly Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, and Iraqis, coming for reasons economic and political; originally they were mostly Christians fleeing the uncertain political climate of the late Ottoman Empire, while later arrivals are a mixed bag of Muslims and Christians escaping the region's sporadic warfare. However, another major group arrived for another reason entirely: the first Yemenis arrived because Henry Ford hated black people (and Jews, but that's another story), so he brought in Yemenis (and Lebanese, but a lot were coming anyway) over as cheap labor for his factories instead. This is a major reason that the city of Dearborn, Michigan (where the Ford Motor Co. is headquartered) is the largest Arab-American community in the country: the Yemenis and Lebanese formed a nucleus around which the community was built.
* The Iranian-Americans mostly came after the Revolution of 1979, fleeing the turmoil and the Ayatollah.[[note]]As a result, most of them are rather secular and will often support whomever professes to dislike the current regime more.[[/note]]
* The US is also one of seven nations which every year accepts a significant amount of refugees from around the world: over the years these have included Hmong, Nepalis, Burmese, Karen, Somalis, Iraqis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and many many others.

Note that this is a different attitude from the equally variegated next-door-neighbor country of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Rather than a melting-pot, Canada promotes "multiculturalism"; the idea is that rather than everybody adapting the Canadian culture, the cultures remain and the only thing that is adapted are Canadian "values" (such as democracy, freedom, and other vague-sounding terms). The success of this approach compared to the "melting-pot"-- or [[NotSoDifferent if there is any difference on the ground whatever between the approaches]]--is the subject of [[InternetBackdraft intense debate]] [[CulturalPosturing and many shouted insults]].

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/64c7f84510698d1539aa1d84ca2eae32.jpg]]

* The German-Americans mostly came for economic reasons, particularly dislocation during the industrialization of Germany. A particularly famous wave came over for political reasons in the late 1840s. This wave was composed mainly of young-to-middle-aged intellectuals, professionals, and revolutionaries, who had seen the Revolution of 1848 that they had supported crash and burn and decided to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere get out of Germany before anyone could hurt them]]. These "Forty-Eighters" often found prominent positions in society, industry, politics, and the arts in the new country, and were heavily invested in liberal causes like abolitionism, labor reform, and [[CaptainObvious opposition to nativism]], becoming among the staunchest supporters of the Union in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar as a result.

* Polish-Americans fled from the chronic poverty and oppression of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]]. This is also true of a number of other peoples subject to the Russian Empire (e.g. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and [[CaptainObvious Russians]]).

* The [[TheIrishDiaspora Irish-Americans]] fled famine and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. More recently, since the "Celtic Tiger" of the 90s and 00s crashed and burned during the Great Recession, young Irish people have increasingly come to the US--often as bartenders, usually on the East Coast or in Chicago--where the economic climate is slightly less crappy than Europe.

* The first African-Americans were forcibly brought over as slaves. Recently, there are growing communities of African immigrants who are fleeing violence and poverty. These new immigrants, unlike most African-Americans, have no connection to slavery or the [[CivilRightsMovement Jim Crow]] era, but they do marry into the older community with some regularity. [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama The child of one such immigrant]] (who married into the "original" African-American community) was later elected and reelected President of the United States.

* The many Dutch-Americans also moved for economic reasons, although others, followers of the ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Pillarisation}} gereformeerde]]'' movement of Abraham Kuyper, came because they felt that the Netherlands was becoming too secular (these people settled in West UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}). A lot of Dutch-Americans were here before the English, particularly in New York and New Jersey (which were formerly New Netherland). They came for many reasons, but usually to get rich. The New Netherland Dutch became a powerful and wealthy constituency in the US (for instance, the first person of non-British descent to hold the Presidency was MartinVanBuren, a Dutchman from Upstate New York);[[note]]His predecessors had been 4-5 Englishmen, 1-2 Welshmen (Jefferson and maybe Adams), and an Ulster Scotsman[[/note]] a disproportionate amount of New York [[BlueBlood Old Money]] are Dutch (hence the [[ForgottenTrope long-forgotten joke]] about "[[GrandeDame Mrs. Van Whoozis]].")

* The German-Americans mostly came for economic reasons, particularly dislocation during the industrialization of Germany.
** However, a particularly famous wave came over for political reasons in the late 1840s. This wave was composed mainly of young-to-middle-aged intellectuals, professionals, and revolutionaries, who had seen the Revolution of 1848 that they had supported crash and burn and decided to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere get out of Germany before anyone could hurt them]]. These "Forty-Eighters" often found prominent positions in society, industry, politics, and the arts in the new country, and were heavily invested in liberal causes like abolitionism, labor reform, and [[CaptainObvious opposition to nativism]], becoming among the staunchest supporters of the Union in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar as a result.
* The many Dutch-Americans also moved for economic reasons, although others, followers of the ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Pillarisation}} gereformeerde]]'' movement of Abraham Kuyper, came because they felt that the Netherlands was becoming too secular (these people settled in West UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}).
** Harping on about the Dutch: A lot of Dutch-Americans were here before the English, particularly in New York and New Jersey (which were formerly New Netherland). They came for many reasons, but usually to get rich. The New Netherland Dutch became a powerful and wealthy constituency in the US (for instance, the first person of non-British descent to hold the Presidency was MartinVanBuren, a Dutchman from Upstate New York);[[note]]His predecessors had been 4-5 Englishmen, 1-2 Welshmen (Jefferson and maybe Adams), and an Ulster Scotsman[[/note]] a disproportionate amount of New York [[BlueBlood Old Money]] are Dutch (hence the [[ForgottenTrope long-forgotten joke]] about "[[GrandeDame Mrs. Van Whoozis]].")

* Polish-Americans fled from the chronic poverty and oppression of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia and [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]].
** This is also true of a number of other peoples subject to the Russian Empire (e.g. Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and [[CaptainObvious Russians]]).

* The Mexican-Americans came to the USA as cheap labor. A later group fled the Mexican economic crisis that lasted from 1982 to 1996.
** Most Latin Americans in general come to America looking for work.
** There are also a great many fleeing the drug wars raging in Mexico.

* The Arab-Americans are mostly Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, and Iraqis, coming for reasons economic and political; originally they were mostly Christians fleeing the uncertain political climate of the late Ottoman Empire, while later arrivals are a mixed bag of Muslims and Christians escaping the region's sporadic warfare.
** However, another major group arrived for another reason entirely: the first Yemenis arrived because Henry Ford hated black people (and Jews, but that's another story), so he brought in Yemenis (and Lebanese, but a lot were coming anyway) over as cheap labor for his factories instead. This is a major reason that the city of Dearborn, Michigan (where the Ford Motor Co. is headquartered) is the largest Arab-American community in the country: the Yemenis and Lebanese formed a nucleus around which the community was built.

-->-- SchoolhouseRock, ''[[http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Great.html The Great American Melting Pot]]''

* Polish-Americans fled from the chronic poverty and oppression of TsaristRussia and [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]].

* The Mexican-Americans came to the USA as cheap labor. A later group fled the Mexican economical crisis that lasted from 1982 to 1996.

* The Italian-Americans mostly came to escape poverty, but a sizable number of them were actually [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WarsOfItalianIndependence people from the southern Kingdom of Two Sicilies escaping the Sardinian-led unification]].

* The first African-Americans were forcibly brought over as slaves. Recently, there are growing communities of African immigrants who are fleeing violence and poverty. These new immigrants, unlike most African-Americans, have no connection to slavery or the [[CivilRightsMovement Jim Crow]] era, but they do marry into the older community with some regularity. [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama The child of one such immigrant]] (who married into the "original" African-American community) was recently elected and reelected President of the United States.

* The Irish-Americans fled famine and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. More recently, since the "Celtic Tiger" of the 90s and 00s crashed and burned during the Great Recession, young Irish people have increasingly come to the US--often as bartenders, usually on the East Coast or in Chicago--where the economic climate is slightly less crappy than Europe.

** However, a particularly famous wave came over for political reasons in the late 1840s. This wave was composed mainly of young-to-middle-aged intellectuals, professionals, and revolutionaries, who had seen the Revolution of 1848 that they had supported crash and burn and decided to get out of Germany before anyone could hurt them. These "Forty-Eighters" often found prominent positions in society, industry, politics, and the arts in the new country, and were heavily invested in liberal causes like abolitionism, labor reform, and [[CaptainObvious opposition to nativism]], becoming among the staunchest supporters of the Union in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar as a result.

* The Italian-Americans mostly came to escape poverty, but a sizeable number of them were actually [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WarsOfItalianIndependence people from the southern Kingdom of Two Sicilies escaping the Sardinian-led unification]].
* The Arab-Americans are mostly Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, and Iraqis, coming for reasons economic and political; originally they were mostly Christians fleeing the uncertain political climate of the late Ottoman Empire, while more recently they are Muslims and Christians escaping the region's sporadic warfare.

Sadly, America has ''always'' been ambivalent about being a nation of immigrants. Since the country's founding, each successive wave of immigrants has been seen as dirty, uneducated, unwilling to assimilate, etc. by the rest of America, only to settle in and decry the ''next'' wave of immigrants. To illustrate this, can anyone think bad thoughts about folks of Germanic descent? Aside from, y'know, [[ThoseWackyNazis the obvious]]? There was a time when the German population were seen as less-than American especially during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Schools stopped teaching German and foods like hamburgers and frankfurters were renamed "Salisbury steak" and "hot dogs" (the last name stuck)[[note]]Both these names pre-date UsefulNotes/WorldWarI; however, names like "Liberty steak" and "Liberty cabbage" were coined precisely because of World War I[[/note]][[note]]"Hot dogs" are also known as weiners, weinies, franks, and even frankfurters. "Salisbury steak" is now a ground beef patty served on a plate with mushroom gravy[[/note]]. Some states even banned teaching German or teaching in German, something [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_v._Nebraska the Supreme Court had to strike down]] later. Italian-Americans were also suspect, for a while. Even today, they're associated with TheMafia in some communities. Catholics (a group that just so happened to comprise Italians and Irish, as well as many "Bo-hunk" Central Europeans--Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, etc.--Anglos viewed as suspicious, plus a not inconsiderable number of Germans, as well) were viewed as agents of the Pope who were trying to overturn America's democratic institutions, and supported a church that was, in the view of many Protestants, theologically suspect at best and outright heretical at worst. UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's Chinatown is a fabulous (and popular) place to visit, though it was initially born of a really ''vile'' set of racist immigration laws. Peculiarly, this could go both ways, benefiting some immigrants to the detriment of others; as we mentioned above, Dearborn's Arab community is, like SF Chinatown, awesome (although less popular), but was also born of really vile history--Henry Ford's hatred of black and Jewish people, which was typical if rather over-vehement for the time.

* The Vietnamese-Americans fled the end of TheVietnamWar.
* Some other European-Americans fled WorldWarOne.

Sadly, America has ''always'' been ambivalent about being a nation of immigrants. Since the country's founding, each successive wave of immigrants has been seen as dirty, uneducated, unwilling to assimilate, etc. by the rest of America, only to settle in and decry the ''next'' wave of immigrants. To illustrate this, can anyone think bad thoughts about folks of Germanic descent? Aside from, y'know, [[ThoseWackyNazis the obvious]]? There was a time when the German population were seen as less-than American especially during WorldWarI. Schools stopped teaching German and foods like hamburgers and frankfurters were renamed "Salisbury steak" and "hot dogs" (the last name stuck)[[note]]Both these names pre-date WorldWarI; however, names like "Liberty steak" and "Liberty cabbage" were coined precisely because of World War I[[/note]][[note]]"Hot dogs" are also known as weiners, weinies, franks, and even frankfurters. "Salisbury steak" is now a ground beef patty served on a plate with mushroom gravy[[/note]]. Some states even banned teaching German or teaching in German, something [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_v._Nebraska the Supreme Court had to strike down]] later. Italian-Americans were also suspect, for a while. Even today, they're associated with TheMafia in some communities. Catholics (a group that just so happened to comprise Italians and Irish, as well as many "Bo-hunk" Central Europeans--Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, etc.--Anglos viewed as suspicious, plus a not inconsiderable number of Germans, as well) were viewed as agents of the Pope who were trying to overturn America's democratic institutions, and supported a church that was, in the view of many Protestants, theologically suspect at best and outright heretical at worst. UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's Chinatown is a fabulous (and popular) place to visit, though it was initially born of a really ''vile'' set of racist immigration laws. Peculiarly, this could go both ways, benefiting some immigrants to the detriment of others; as we mentioned above, Dearborn's Arab community is, like SF Chinatown, awesome (although less popular), but was also born of really vile history--Henry Ford's hatred of black and Jewish people, which was typical if rather over-vehement for the time.

----

Most of them, however, came and still come for one reason -- to pursue the AmericanDream.

* The Chinese-Americans originally came to work on the transcontinental railroad and in the gold mines. Although Chinese immigration was banned from 1882 to 1943, the Chinese-American population has consistently grown (particularly after mainland China reopened to the West), with immigrants moving to the United States primarily for education and work.

* The Chinese-Americans came to work on the transcontinental railroad and in the gold mines.

* Some European-Americans fled WorldWarOne.

* The US is also one of seven nations which every year accepts a significant amount of refugees from around the world: over the years these have included Hmong, Nepalis, Burmese, Karen, Somalis, Iraqis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and many many others

Although most of these communities don't last. The average American moves over 11 times in their lifetime with the majority of those relocations occurring in their mid-20's. It is because of this highly mobile and individualistic subset that most areas in the U.S. measure their demographic changes in a couple of decades rather than centuries.

* The Italian-Americans came to escape poverty.