
Show HN: Map of immigration to the U.S. since 1820 - mgalka
http://metrocosm.com/us-immigration-history-map.html
======
notahacker
Coincidentally, I saw these state by state migrant origin maps for each decade
in animated form on Twitter this morning (showing numbers resident rather than
numbers flowing in) [http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/from-ireland-to-
german...](http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/from-ireland-to-germany-to-
italy-to-mexico-how-americas-source-of-immigrants-has-changed-in-the-
states-1850-to-2013/)

Some predictable phenomena (Cubans being the most common migrant group in
Florida from 1970 onwards, Mexicans being the most common migrants in Texas
and the West Coast initially and then most places) and some weird ones (why
were Laotians so common in Minnesota in 1990, and why is the Ethiopian
diaspora the largest in South Dakota as of 2013?)

~~~
dmoy
RE: Laos in Minnesota

Good chance this is actually a lot of Hmong:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hmong_in_Minnea...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hmong_in_Minneapolis%E2%80%93Saint_Paul)

(source: went to school in the 90s in Minnesota, like 30% of my classmates
were Hmong)

Similar deal with Somali in Minneapolis - once there's critical mass of a
given group in a given city, it increases the immigration pull because there's
a support network. Right: if you do local stuff in Minneapolis, it's trivial
to get paperwork in Somali, or find a Hmong translator.

~~~
notahacker
I understand the benefits of diasporas settling in one city, just surprised
it's one in Minnesota.

In the UK the smaller diasporas all seem to end up concentrated in London. My
favourite exception to this is Ugandan Asians fleeing Idi Amin, the majority
of whom chose to settle in Leicester, a city many of them first heard of
through adverts Leicester City Council took out in the Ugandan press addressed
to "the many families in Uganda considering coming to Leicester" urging them
_not_ to come; they've been one of the UK's most successful minority groups
ever since.

~~~
dmoy
Some, in the case of Hmong and Somali, are because of groups in Minnesota
encouraging the migration specifically to Minnesota. This is a reasonable
recap of the Somali side:

[http://tcdailyplanet.tumblr.com/post/7081807388/ask-a-
somali...](http://tcdailyplanet.tumblr.com/post/7081807388/ask-a-somali-why-
are-there-so-many-somalis-in)

TL;DR - Lutherans

------
josho
I love new ways to express data. But, as I see animations like this I become a
little anxious as I'd like to absorb the information, but if I look too
closely in one area then I risk missing a bigger pattern or trend.

After watching, I'm convinced that a good old line chart would have been a
better representation of the data. Perhaps with some added dynamic behaviour.

~~~
mjevans
I really wanted to see both /where/ immigration was going /to/ and also where
it was from. Like color mixing and destinations.

~~~
irrational
Looks like they were all going to Kansas to me.

------
namenotrequired
This seems to exclude forced immigration from Africa, which was a large
majority until halfway the 19th century.

They are taken into account in the same site's visualisation of New Yorkers:
[http://metrocosm.com/where-new-yorkers-come-
from/](http://metrocosm.com/where-new-yorkers-come-from/)

~~~
DrScump
<This seems to exclude forced immigration from Africa, which was a large
majority until halfway the 19th century>

No, importation of slaves to the U.S. was banned in 1808. Most slaves were
native-born, to slaves and descendants of slaves.

~~~
swombat
The case of the Amistad in 1839 (fictionalised in a famous Spielberg movie)
shows that this was not at all the case in reality:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._The_Amistad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._The_Amistad)

I'm sure many slaves were slave-born in that period, but it seems they were
still importing people from Africa en masse.

~~~
DrScump
I wrote that it was _banned_ ; I did not say that enforcement was flawless.

Similarly, trade between the CSA and the U.K. was "banned" as well, but there
were successful blockade runners.

~~~
cmdrfred
Also no data set is perfect, the fact that it was illegal probably means there
aren't any ledgers lying around to go off of.

------
c3534l
I'd like to see this as a percentage of the world population since the
increase over time makes it hard to see exactly what's happening.

~~~
mgalka
This post gives some more information: [http://metrocosm.com/animated-
immigration-map/](http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/)

There is a chart showing the major immigration flows as a percentage of U.S.
population.

------
bhandziuk
This is a cool map and there's tons of information in it. It'd be nice to see
more details, like the actual numbers instead of just a top 3 counties list.
Or if I pause the timeline and hover over a country it'd be neat if it listed
that year's exodus.

Why do come countries brighten in some years but then dim later on?

Edit: ah I see the associated blog post has a little more info, especially
about the brightness question. [http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-
map/](http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/)

~~~
mgalka
Yes. It originally did allow you to hover over the countries to see more
information. But combined with everything else it required too much memory and
caused it to run slow on mobile browsers.

Doesn't seem like removing a tooltip should make the difference, but it
allowed me to simplify the map, remove jquery, and make a few other
simplifications to the code.

If I were to make it over again, I would use WebGL for the particles next time
instead of Canvas, and performance problems wouldn't be an issue.

~~~
bhandziuk
too bad. Great map otherwise

------
mxfh
Have you seen
[http://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/foreignborn/#decade=1850](http://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/foreignborn/#decade=1850)
?

I starts 30 years later but has data on county level.

[https://github.com/americanpanorama/panorama-
foreignborn](https://github.com/americanpanorama/panorama-foreignborn)

~~~
mgalka
Thanks. Cool graphic. Had not seen it.

------
curiousgal
That one spot in Oklahoma must be popping.

------
mmanfrin
Surprised me how much came from Canada -- has that been a thing, or is Canada
a proxy for other countries?

~~~
rdmcfee
One thing that stood out to me is that immigration from Canada nearly stopped
altogether in the mid 1890s. I wonder if the klondike gold rush was a factor
here. I know it spurred a mass migration to the North.

As a collateral effect, even Vancouver's population skyrocketed growing from
around 13,700 in 1891 to over 100,000 in 1911.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Vancouver#Popu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Vancouver#Population_growth)

~~~
epa
Probably one major factor was completion of the trans-canada rail road to
British Columbia, finished in 1885 by CPR. This allowed free movement of
immigrants from Coast to Coast, lowering immigration to the US and moving that
migration to Western Canada.

------
baran1
Hi, nitpick comment, but the boundaries of the countries on this map are not
changing over the course of almost a century.

------
k__
Didn't know so much Germans came to the US back in the days.

~~~
c3534l
I think most white Americans identify as Irish first and then German second.
However, a lot of German heritage was suppressed following anti-German
sentiment during WWI and WWII.

Edit: it's actually the other way around. German is the most common ancestry
for white people in America.

~~~
curtis
I've long heard that German is the most common ancestry for Americans, but
I've always wondered how that was determined. I think they may be counting
total immigrants, but not allowing for when the immigrants arrived.

I can readily believe that more immigrants arrived from Germany than from the
British Isles, but it's also possible that by the time those German immigrants
showed up they were outnumbered by the descendants of the earlier immigrants
from the British Isles, perhaps even just immigrants from England itself.

I've never seen any sort of analysis like this, though.

~~~
c3534l
They just ask people where their ancestors came from, like on the census.
Brits may be undercounted because they've been here so long they don't even
know they were British, but also the European population was quite small when
they first started to settle here.

~~~
curtis
Oh, this is pretty interesting:

From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_Unit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Analysis_by_2000_Federal_Population_Census):

    
    
      Fifteen largest ancestries in the United States as self reported 
      in the 2000 Census:[58]
    
      Rank    Ancestry        Number  Percent of total
      population
      —       U.K. (1801–1922) 66,224,627[59]  23.3%[59]
      1       German           42,841,569      15.2%
      2       Irish            30,524,799      10.8%
      3       African          24,903,412      8.8%
      4       English          24,509,692      8.7%
      5       American         20,188,305      7.2%
      6       Mexican          18,382,291      6.5%
      7       Italian          15,638,348      5.6%
      8       Polish           8,977,235       3.2%
      9       French           8,309,666       3.0%
      10      American Indian
                and 
              Alaskan Native   7,876,568       2.8%
      11      Scottish         4,890,581       1.7%
      12      Dutch            4,541,770       1.6%
      13      Norwegian        4,477,725       1.6%
      14      Scotch-Irish     4,319,232       1.5%
      15      Chinese          4,010,114       1.4%

~~~
int_19h
Even more interesting if you look at it state by state. You'll find that most
states in the northwestern part of the country are majority German, for
example.

------
shimon
Awesome viz! Would like some perspective on the overall volume, too. Maybe add
a bar chart above the timeline/slider showing total immigration in each year?
Maybe even alongside a graph of total US population growth so it's clear how
much of the growth is due to immigration.

~~~
hk__2
Also don’t forget emigration. I don’t know the numbers for the US but for
example in the EU some countries had more emigrants than immigrants during
some years (e.g. Spain in 2010).

(edit: clarification)

------
bunkydoo
We're gonna build a dome around the continental US and make the united nations
pay for it!!

------
r-w
This is an amazing chart! I wish you’d used great circles
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle))
though.

~~~
mgalka
Thanks. They actually are great circles, generated using arc.js. As they
approach the poles the arcs look a little funny, but that is only because it
is a cylindrical map projection.

------
lifeformed
They should've horizontally centered the US on the map so that that immigrants
from Asia/Russia don't have to jump across the map.

------
ktRolster
In the last 10 years, immigration has really picked up from all over the
world, whereas earlier it was just a few countries.

~~~
jobesian4lyfe
That's because in the last ten years, America has proven to have a great
quality of life. Clean roads, better facilities and plenty of well paying
jobs.

~~~
tstrimple
How has it proven that? What I find interesting is that early on, our
immigrants were predominantly from developed nations. Over time, this shifted
more and more to developing nations. To me that seems to indicate that we're
not seen as the land of opportunity among first world nations any longer.
There are better options with more economic mobility and social services.
Unless gun ownership is your primary motivating factor for immigration, there
are many places where the working poor are better off going.

~~~
zhemao
Both of these theories seem too simplistic. From the visualization, it didn't
seem like immigration from Europe necessarily decreased in the late 20th
century. It's just that the proportion from the rest of the world increased.

Also, countries like Ireland, Germany, and Italy weren't really "developed"
prior to the 20th century (and to be fair, neither was the US). Germany and
Italy weren't even united countries until late in the 19th century and Ireland
was a British possession until the early 20th. It's possible Europeans are
just staying where they are because conditions in their home countries have
improved. Or, more likely, they are emigrating to richer EU countries because
the Schengen agreement makes this much easier. Another factor is that a big
draw for European immigrants in the 19th century was the large amount of
unclaimed farmland out west. This is no longer the case now.

As for immigration from non-Western countries, they are coming over in larger
numbers now because they are actually allowed to. Prior to 1965, quotas
heavily favored Western European countries over the rest of the world[1].

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Ac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965)

------
chm
According to this, Canada was in the top 3 from 1910 to 1969 (being #1 from
1920 to 1949). Mexico has been #1 since 1960 up to present. It would be
interesting to see the number of immigrants per country (at least in the top
3) as well as the proportion of immigrants wrt the total population during
each decade.

------
danielam
[http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/p...](http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_PCT018&prodType=table)

------
known
3,443,063 Indians in USA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
resident_Indian_and_person...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
resident_Indian_and_person_of_Indian_origin)

------
marcoperaza
1965 Immigration Act. That's when we stopped caring about making immigration
work for our country, and started caring about doing whatever it takes to not
be called racist.

~~~
dasfasf
It's neat how you can see immigration policy being enacted though. China goes
dark in 1882 (Chinese Exclusion Act), then Russia lights up for the New
Immigration near the turn of the century and goes dark in 1924 (Immigration
Act of 1924), and then everything opens up in 1965.

------
matthewbauer
Does "United Kingdom" in the early 20th century mean just the British Isles?
Or is India, Australia, Middle East also included under "UK"?

~~~
allendoerfer
Here is an explanation I like:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10)

And it gets even more complicated:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O37yJBFRrfg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O37yJBFRrfg)

------
slezyr
Is something wrong with Ukraine? At the end there a lot of dots coming from
it, but it doesn't changes it's color. And it has same color as Russia.

~~~
slezyr
Something wrong with site or my browser. It differs from this video

[https://twitter.com/galka_max/status/727895094255190016?ref_...](https://twitter.com/galka_max/status/727895094255190016?ref_src=twsrc^tfw)

------
fiatjaf
I was waiting for US to explode in the end of the animation.

~~~
hyperliner
it exploded in many ways: new technology startups, innovation, etc.

~~~
mgalka
Ha! Don't forget Nobel Prizes.

~~~
hyperliner
And we don't have to use Altavista anymore! That right there makes it all
worth it!!!

------
leighmcculloch
Australia has very little immigration to the US it seems.

~~~
lukeholder
Too right mate, it's too far to swim!

~~~
vacri
[http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml](http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml)

------
stevofolife
Anyone know what type of format these data are in?

------
senthil_rajasek
"The quality of mercy is not strained"

------
marymkearney
This is beautiful. Thanks for making it.

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jnmandal
why are you using an iframe?

~~~
mgalka
The graphic is a canvas element overlaid on an svg element. I wasn't able to
figure out a way of making the whole thing responsive so I just put it in a
responsive iframe.

I'm sure there is a better solution. Would love to hear if anyone knows.

------
PoorBloke123
Since this page states" "Most illegal immigration is not included" I'd like to
see one of these representing the flow of illegal immigrants (especially from
and across Mexico) since Obama won his first election (and second).

~~~
matthewmcg
Here are some data based on community surveys. These show a net outflow during
that period:

[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/what-we-
know...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/what-we-know-about-
illegal-immigration-from-mexico/)

~~~
WildUtah
There's a new outflow of illegals from the US to Mexico since 2007. But net
inflow of legal migrants from Mexico has been strong and much larger than
illegal flows every one of those years.

And net inflow of illegals from Central America that cross Mexico is very high
and has been rising as illegal inflows from Mexico fall.

