Migration

Amerindians, Pilgrim fathers, immigrants, slaves, Asian–Americans, Hispanics—all denote historical population groups in the United States and in the Americas, but each group is placed in a different frame of reference. All of them arrived as migrants with norms, values, and belief systems of their ancestors and premigration society as a whole. Before immigrating they also had experienced culture-specific material ways of life. They arrived at particular historic conjunctions and developed lifeways specific to the region or city in which they settled.