The United States of America has been coined the “land of opportunities” for hundreds of years, a cliché that both spurred and caused vast surges in immigration. Even as far back as the 19^th century, the United States had a reputation of welcoming tides of hopeful newcomers— the land of opportunities.  Mexico and Russia have always provided a good proportion of those newcomers.  The 2000 census reported a population of 20,640,711 people of Mexican origins living in the country, and 2,652,214 Russians.  It’s clear that there is a much larger Mexican population in this country, and there probably always will be, but there is also a much greater distance from the United States.  Considering how much harder it is to get to America from Russia, the huge differences make a lot of sense.  Despite that, both countries’ immigration patterns to the States are great testaments to how much of a staple this country has been for providing people with new life and new prospects.

The reason this country is so diverse today is that for over a century now, the immigrants pouring into the United States have hailed from every type of culture.  Mexico and Russia are two perfect contrasting examples of this.  The people in those countries had very different problems in the 19th century, and they still do now: different forms of leadership, different economic hardships, different roots of oppression, different reasons for wanting to leave.  And yet, immigration from both of those countries showed a strong preference of the United States of America.  The flow of new residents increased consistently from 1880 to 2000, according to the New York Times’ “Immigration Explorer.”

However, there are interesting differences that play into the pattern of almost polar variances between Russia and Mexico.  19^th and 20^th century emigration from Russia was the result of anti-Semitism, with many Eastern European Jews looking for an escape from the prejudices and a better life.  The early Mexican immigration in the U.S was in response for the demand of labor.  All of those immigrants were laborers who were brought into the country for cheap wages and bad conditions.  Another disparity between the two countries’ immigration trend is geographical. The exact opposite happened in Mexico, with immigrant habitation starting out on the west coast and approaching the east as the years passed.

With these geographic patterns came corresponding patterns in the concentration of immigrants in each area.  Russian immigration displays a pattern of fluctuation in rates throughout time.  Within the 20^th century, Russian immigration increased and reached a peak between the years 1910 and 1950, and tapered off slowly for the rest of the century.  In 2000, there seemed to be another surge.  Mexican immigration, however is a slightly different story.  The rates steadily increased throughout time, with the numbers for the year 2000 being the largest recorded.

Russian immigration surged in early 20^th century. The 1910s was the largest influx of Russian immigration to the United States.  They concentrated mainly on the east coast of the U.S. and most Russians settled in Manhattan, New York, Brooklyn, New York, and Cook County, Illinois.  To be exact, there were 312,985 Russians in Manhattan, 160,596 in Brooklyn and 128,369 in Cook County.  Immigrants from Russia arrived at the east coast in the early 20^th century and that’s where the Russian population was mostly concentrated.  As time progressed, they moved further west and spread out throughout the entire nation.

Mexican immigration has been increasing gradually over the 60 years, since the 1950s.  In 2000, which the data in the “Immigration Explorer” reaches, displays the greatest number of Mexican immigrants in the country.  The most are located in Los Angeles County, California, with 1,525,157 Mexican immigrants.  The whole west coast of the United States contains Mexicans, but they are also in South-western United States, mainly in Dallas County and Harris County in Texas.  The populations born in Mexico are 295,678 and 395,459, respectively.  Lastly, another large amount of Mexican immigrants is in Cook County, Illinois, where Russian immigrants used to settle, and in 2000 there are 430,156 immigrants from Mexico there.

The message from all of this data is representative of immigration in the United States of America as a whole.  Despite the differences in rates and time between different immigrant origins, there is a strong history of people coming here that shows no signs of stopping.