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Minnesota's global faces: An immigration timeline
May 18, 2005
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. From the beginning, it has been molded by the push and pull of political, economic, and social upheaval and opportunity. U.S. policy and global events have combined with the migratory nature of humankind to draw and redraw the image of the nation and the global faces of Minnesota.
May 18, 2005
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. From the beginning, it has been molded by the push and pull of political, economic, and social upheaval and opportunity. U.S. policy and global events have combined with the migratory nature of humankind to draw and redraw the image of the nation and the global faces of Minnesota.
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| 1776-1790 |
Immigration to the United States is largely unregulated. Exploration and the development of transatlantic trade routes foster global migration. Religion, commerce, indentured servitude, slavery, economic/agricultural hardship are among the factors that motivate international resettlement. |
| 1786 |
The U.S. government establishes the first federal Native American Indian reservation. Over the next 150 years, the Native American population will be decimated by forced removal from traditional lands, disease, and war. By 1900, the native population will be reduced from pre-contact numbers estimated at 900,000 to 250,000. |
| 1790 |
The first census of the population records 4 million European residents in the United States, mostly English, Dutch, Scotch-Irish and German. Enslaved Africans made up one-fifth of the population; Native Indians are excluded from the count. Congress enacts the first legislation regulating citizenship. Any free white person could apply after two years of residency. |
| 1819 |
Steerage Act establishes strict reporting on immigration into the U.S. |
| 1845 |
Ireland's potato crop fails; widespread famine causes 500,000 Irish to immigrate to America over the next five years. |
| 1848 |
The California Gold Rush triggers mass immigration from the Far East as more than 100,000 Chinese are recruited as laborers. |
| 1850 |
For the first time, the Census Bureau includes information on nativity-country of birth-in the decennial census. The American Party, or "Know-Nothings," organizes around staunch anti-immigration policies, including the exclusion of foreign-born residents from voting and holding office. |
| 1862 |
Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, turning over 270 million acres of public territory to private citizens and immigrants willing to settle and farm the land. Nearly 10,000 homestead entries were made in Minnesota. |
| 1867 |
The Minnesota Legislature creates the State Board of Immigration. During the decade from 1860 to 1870, the foreign-born population nearly triples as the resettlement to Minnesota is aggressively promoted abroad. |
| 1870 |
Sixty-five percent of Minnesota residents are immigrants, or the children of immigrants—mostly British, German, and Scandinavian. |
| 1882 |
For the first time, immigration restrictions based on race are implemented in the Chinese Exclusion Act. |
| 1891 |
The federal government assumes authority over immigration with the Immigration Act of 1891. The legislation establishes a federal enforcement agency responsible for processing all immigrants, and increases restrictions on certain classes of foreigners seeking admittance to the U.S. |
| 1900 |
Minnesota ranks 7th among states in the number of foreign-born residents. |
| 1910-1920 |
The Mexican Revolution, labor shortages during WWI and agricultural opportunities spur immigration from Mexico. Minnesota growers recruit "betabeleros," Mexican sugar-beet pickers. |
| 1921 |
The Quota Act limits immigration from southern and eastern European countries. |
| 1924 |
Native Americans are granted full citizenship. |
| 1942 |
U.S. and Mexico initiate the Bracero Program, allowing temporary migration of Mexicans into the U.S. to work in the agricultural industry. |
| 1975 |
Two years after the Paris Peace Accord is signed and American troops withdraw from Vietnam, the U.S. stages a massive airlift, evacuating Americans and Southeast Asian refugees. A year later, the first wave of Hmong refugees arrives in Minnesota. |
| 1980 |
The Federal Refugee Resettlement Program is created to aid in the relocation and integration of international refugees into the U.S. mainstream. |
| 1986 |
The Immigration and Control Act is passed to curb illegal immigration. The legislation mandates greater enforcement and employer sanctions, but also offers amnesty to illegal aliens who have lived in the U.S. since before 1982. |
| 1989 |
The collapse of the Berlin Wall signals the breakup of the Soviet Union; by 2004 the number of recent Russian immigrants in Minnesota grows to nearly 13,000. |
| 1990 |
The outbreak of civil war in Somalia begins the flow of Somali refugees to the U.S., many settling in Minnesota. In 2003, more Somalis immigrate to Minnesota than any other ethnic group. |
| 1991 |
Ethnic hostilities in the former Yugoslavia displace 700,000 Bosnians. By 2003, more than 2,000 relocate in Minnesota, many in the Red River Valley. |
| 2002 |
Immigration to Minnesota reaches an historical high. More than 13,000 people from some 150 countries arrive in Minnesota. |
| 2005 |
An estimated 5,000 Hmong from the Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Thailand are scheduled to be resettled in Minnesota by the end of the year. |
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