Total population | |
---|---|
60,965 (by birth 2000 United States Census data) 114,000 (by ancestry ) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
West Coast (especially in California near the San Francisco and Sacramento area), Midwest, New England, Florida and Texas [1] | |
Languages | |
Australian English, Australian Aboriginal languages, American English | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholic and Protestant | |
Related ethnic groups | |
British Americans · Cornish Americans · Canadian Americans · English Americans · Scottish Americans · Scotch-Irish Americans · Welsh Americans · Irish Americans • New Zealand Americans • Oceanian Americans • White Americans • Asian Americans |
Australian Americans are Americans who have Australian ancestry. [2] The first Australian Americans were settlers in Australia who then moved on to America. This group included English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish settlers in Australia who then moved to California during the Gold Rush. Immigration from Australia to the United States increased at times of economic boom, such as the Reconstruction era, and in the years following the Second World War. Many Australian citizens live in the U.S during the 21st century, including an estimated 44,000 Australians living in the city of Los Angeles alone as of 2016.
The history of the Australian American population almost follows the story of both British Americans and Irish Americans, as Australia was a British political territory at the time when they first immigrated and most of the settlers were English or Irish. The first wave of immigration from Australia to the United States came in the 1850s California Gold Rush when mostly Irish migrants who had escaped the Great Irish Famine had previously worked on the Australian goldfields. In San Francisco, the "Sydney Ducks" as they were known came into violent conflict with nativist locals. [3]
Transpacific immigration then dried up while the American Civil War took place. It picked up during the period of Reconstruction, but faltered again when Australia was hit by an economic depression in the late 1890s. Immigration to the United States peaked in the years following World War II, due to America's increased economic activity, and the exodus of 15,000 Australian war brides who married U.S. servicemen. From 1971 to 1990, more than 86,400 Australians and New Zealanders immigrated to the United States. [4]
At the 2000 U.S. Census, 60,965 Australian-born people were enumerated in the United States, of which 15,315 were citizens. Around 40% of Australian Americans had entered the United States before 1980. [5] Since 2010, a Little Australia has emerged and is growing in Nolita, Manhattan, New York City. [6] In 2016, the Australian Consulate-General estimated there were 44,000 Australians living in Los Angeles. [7]
Romanian Americans are Americans who have Romanian ancestry. According to the 2017 American Community Survey, 478,278 Americans indicated Romanian as their first or second ancestry, however other sources provide higher estimates, which are most likely more accurate, for the numbers of Romanian Americans in the contemporary United States; for example, the Romanian-American Network supplies a rough estimate of 1.2 million who are fully or partially of Romanian ethnicity. There is also a significant number of people of Romanian Jewish ancestry, estimated at 225,000.
Thai Americans are Americans of Thai ancestry. The Thai American population is racially and ethnically diverse, consisting of many Thais who identify as mixed race and as Thai Chinese.
Egyptian Americans are Americans of partial or full Egyptian ancestry. The 2016 US Census estimated the number of people with Egyptian ancestry at 256,000, most of whom are from Egypt's Christian Orthodox Coptic minority. Egyptian Americans may also include the Egyptian foreign-born population in the United States. The US Census Bureau estimated in 2016 that there were 181,677 foreign-born Egyptians in the United States. They represented around 0.4% of the total US foreign-born population as 42,194,354 first-generation immigrants in 2016. Egyptians are concentrated in New York City and Los Angeles. California has the largest Egyptian population by state.
War brides are women who married military personnel from other countries in times of war or during military occupations, a practice that occurred in great frequency during World War I and World War II. Allied servicemen married many women in other countries where they were stationed at the end of the war, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Poland, Luxembourg, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, and the Soviet Union. Similar marriages also occurred in Korea and Vietnam with the later wars in those countries involving U.S. troops and other anti-communist soldiers.
New Zealand Americans are Americans who have New Zealand ancestry. According to the 2010 surveys, there are 19,961 New Zealand Americans. Most of them are of European descent, but some hundreds are of indigenous New Zealand descent. Some 925 of those New Zealand-Americans declared they were of Tokelauan origin. The 2000 Census indicated also the existence of 1,994 people of Māori descent in US.
Peruvian Americans are Americans of Peruvian descent.
Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those who settled in the 19th century Russian possessions in northwestern America. Russian Americans comprise the largest Eastern European and East Slavic population in the U.S., the second-largest Slavic population generally, the nineteenth-largest ancestry group overall, and the eleventh-largest from Europe.
Belgian Americans are Americans who can trace their ancestry to people from Belgium who immigrated to the United States. While the first natives of the then-Southern Netherlands arrived in America in the 17th century, the majority of Belgian immigrants arrived during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent.
American Australians are Australian citizens who are of American descent, including immigrants and residents who are descended from migrants from the United States of America and its territories. This includes people of European, African American, American Indian, Hispanic or Latin American, Asian, and Pacific Islander backgrounds.
Chilean Americans are Americans who have full or partial origin from Chile.
Swiss Americans are Americans of Swiss descent.
Maltese Americans are Americans with Maltese ancestry.
Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Australian. Australian law does not provide for a racial or ethnic component of nationality, instead relying on citizenship as a legal status.
Argentine Americans are Americans whose full or partial origin hails from Argentina.
Kenyan Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of Kenyan descent and ancestry. As of the 2021 census, there were an estimated 94,623 Kenyan-born persons living in the United States. Most Kenyan Americans are concentrated in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Texas, Maryland, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, and the greater Washington, D.C. area.
The history of immigration to the United States details the movement of people to the United States from the colonial era to the present day. Throughout U.S. history, the country experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe and later on from Asia and Latin America. Colonial-era immigrants often repaid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants in which the new employer paid the ship's captain. In the late 19th century, immigration from China and Japan was restricted. In the 1920s, restrictive immigration quotas were imposed but political refugees had special status. Numerical restrictions ended in 1965. In recent years, the largest numbers of immigrants to the United States have come from Asia and Central America.
American Chileans and Canadian Chileans are among roughly 300,000 Chileans of North American ancestry. 19th century settlement and land speculation deals brought tens of thousands of Americans to Chile with the rest of Central and South America.
Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native-born or indigenous inhabitants over those of immigrants, including the support of anti-immigration and immigration-restriction measures. In the United States, nativism does not refer to a movement led by Native Americans, also referred to as American Indians.
In the history of the American frontier, pioneers built overland trails throughout the 19th century, especially between 1840 and 1847 as an alternative to sea and railroad transport. These immigrants began to settle much of North America west of the Great Plains as part of the mass overland migrations of the mid-19th century. Settlers emigrating from the eastern United States did so with various motives, among them religious persecution and economic incentives, to move from their homes to destinations further west via routes such as the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. After the end of the Mexican–American War in 1849, vast new American conquests again encouraged mass immigration. Legislation like the Donation Land Claim Act and significant events like the California Gold Rush further encouraged settlers to travel overland to the west.
In Little Australia, Australian-owned cafes are popping up all over the place (such as Two Hands), joining other Australian-owned businesses (such as nightclubs and art galleries) as part of a growing green and gold contingent in NYC. Indeed, walking in this neighbourhood, the odds of your hearing a fellow Aussie ordering a coffee or just kicking back and chatting are high – very high – so much so that if you're keen to meet other Aussies whilst taking your own bite out of the Big Apple, then this is the place to throw that Australian accent around like it's going out of fashion!