The first phase of Eastern-European immigration is generally accepted to have begun in the 1880s, although small numbers from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires had arrived before this time. This first wave lasted until 1914, by which time nearly 7 million Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Belorussians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Romanians had arrived in the US from Eastern Europe.

Following the two world wars, there was a further smaller wave of immigrants, refugees from the postwar chaos, and more political refugees arrived in subsequent decades.

The immigrants of the first wave were motivated by both push factors and pull factors.

Between 1880 and 1914, the Austro-Hungarian empire was in a state of economic turmoil as changes in landownership structure and collapsing agricultural prices, coupled with population increases, meant a surplus of population in rural areas in particular. Many young men were also anxious to be conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army. Russia was embroiled in many of the same problems, and, additionally a series of persecutions known as “pogroms” killed or drove out many thousands of Jews.

At least 90 percent of those who left Eastern Europe during this period went to the US.

The pull factor here was the reputation of the US as a “promised land.” Freedom to worship, for Jews, Doukhobors and other religious groups, was part of the appeal; there was also the idealized vision of America as a land of opportunity where it was possible to rise “from rags to riches.” This last was reinforced by the activities of recruiting agents, who were active in the Austro-Hungarian empire in particular, and who painted a glowing picture of opportunities in America.

Settlement patterns of Eastern-European immigrants varied. Many of the Jewish refugees settled in New York City, first on the Lower East Side and later in Brooklyn and other districts. Other groups, however, though they arrived initially in New York, moved on relatively quickly. Large numbers found their way to the rapidly growing industrial centers of the Midwest, where unskilled labor was urgently needed. Today large proportions of the populations of states from Pennsylvania west to Ohio and Illinois are of Eastern-European descent.

Eastern-European immigrants have added much to the character of the US today.

Individual immigrant communities, such as the Jews of New York and the Poles of Chicago, IL, remain culturally vibrant. More generally the view of the US as a land of opportunity where poor and oppressed peoples can find freedom and riches, has become part of America’s general view of itself. The fact that many of the immigrants found the hard work, poverty and nativism little better than what they had left behind did not color this vision.

In the late twentieth century there has been a resurgence of interest in the cultural identities of many of these groups. In the wake of the success of the Black Power movement, many groups such as the Poles and Ukrainians began espousing a more heightened sense of identity. In this they are also following the example of the Eastern-European Jews, who, from their arrival, had a history of involvement in political movements, including socialism and Zionism.