Why do people say the U.S. is a nation of immigrants like it is unique?

Question

Isn't every country in the world a nation of immigrants. Even the native Americans (which are often referred to as the only non-immigrants in America) had to migrate here from somewhere. Whether one is a creationist or an evolutionists, that first creature had to reproduce and migrate to other parts of the world, thus making everybody an immigrant and every nation made up entirely of immigrants. I don't understand why people say the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. Somebody please explain

Answer 1

I agree most nations in North and South America are land of Immigrants, most 1st world natiions in Europe are that way too now

Answer 2

Immigration and migration are two different ideas. Most nations on Earth were established relatively recently and the population there was largely homogeneous. Different races (for the most part) coming into a country lawfully is termed immigration. Migration is a mass movement of a race or races and is often unlawful and/or disregards the traditions of the people already there. The USA was a prosperous (#2 PCI in the world in 1776) but sparsely populated country consisting of two primary races; British in the north and Scots/Irish in the south. The native Americans welcomed Germans, Slavs, Italians, Scandinavians, Chinese, etc into the country because, basically, there were not enough people to be secure (politically and economically). The indigenous natives didn't exactly like being overrun so fought a war of genocide against the mostly European invaders (a migration), European countries were quite imperialistic, and a small economy would mean dominance by outside countries. Other countries in the world wished to maintain their homogeniality. The USA wanted security and immigrants were the means to this so the USA became a country built by immigrants.

Answer 3

Yes, but we were the first nation formed completely from immigrants (in the past 300 years), apart from the Native Americans, who were here long before that. It's all relative to time, most of the other countries already had people living there for thousands of years and then became a nation (like Greece or Italy).

Answer 4

Yes, all countries have immigration and immigrants. However, the United States is a relatively young country, that was formed by people of several nations. It is not like some countries of Europe, that have had a unique identity for thousands of years. Yes, there were native indians here for thousands of years, but there were so many different tribes, it is difficult to label them as a single nation or ethnic group. And, other than the Chinese Exclusion Act, the US has always accepted people from all countries - where other countries have had much more restrictive immigration standards in their histories.

Answer 5

People say the U.S is a nation of immigrants because the first immigrants were the pilgrims who by the way killed as many native Americans as they could. However, time has changed and I understand that not everyone can come and live in this country. Nevertheless, It kills when I see how some Americans take advantage of these poor immigrants who are also humans.

Answer 6

Well it was the european immigrants that founded most of the locations for the cities you have today. They brought industrialization, technology and other things to this continent.

The structure for the society here is based on ideals brought with them, the system of law etc with some changes was imported.

Without the immigrants north america would not have developed as it has. Think how different it would be if things had developed at a much later date (over 200 years later).

Answer 7

Many nations are not "a nation of immigrants," at least not historically. Until the last two decades many European nations were mostly French, German, Norwegian, etc. Only with the exodus from Africa and to some extent Asia have the nations experienced their own wave of immigration. Until the sun finally set on the British Empire, England was overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon.

Contrast this to the United States where virtually all settlers from Native Americans to the newest arrivals were immigrants.

Answer 8

When the native American people came to North America, the United States was not a NATION. The United States became a NATION when European immigrants came to North America, settled, then fought the Revolutionary War against England and established the United States as a nation. It then became settled by immigrants from many other nations. Yes. many other natons have many immigrants also, but the base of their populations are people who have populated those nations for hundreds or thousands of years. For example, Japan has a mostly homogenous population...it is not a nation made up mostly of immigrants from other parts of the world. Canada and Chile ARE nations made up of mostly people who came from other parts of the world AFTER they were established as nations.

Answer 9

They are talking about the present day not the past, and I guess one reason they call it a nation of immigrants is because the U.S. is probably one of the biggest nations that doesn't have it's own set nationality. You know, American isn't really a nationality you can put on your birth certificate. Yes, Native-American, but they aren't the dominant nationality like in other countries and the U.S. has such a variety of majority nationalities like Caucasian, African-American, Mexican, Spanish and so on.

Example of other countries majority population:

Japan= Japanese
China= Chinese
France= French
Russia= Russians
Africa= Africans
India= Indians
Portugal= Portuguese
Spain= Spanish
But...
U.S. = ??? (*My guess is Caucasian, but the point is it's not the Native populace)

Of course the U.S. isn't the only nation like this, look at the South American countries a lot of their nationalities are Spanish or Portuguese.

Sometimes I like to think the U.S. just wants to feel like they are the center of the world. :D

I might be wrong, but that is how I look at it.

Answer 10

The difference between the US and other countries is most other countries are built around a core group of indigenous people, original Chinese, Germans, Italians, whatever. They have historic roots in the lands they occupy today. Even the Jews have claims to the lands of Israel, though the Arabs try to dispute it.

America literally sprang from the sea and grew from beliefs, faith and doctrines of a few educated immigrants. Sure some atrocities were committed along the way, no country has a spotless record, not even yours. But unlike most other countries, America examines its mistakes openly. How many of our detractors can make the same claim.