America: Built by immigrants
People often call America a “nation of immigrants” — and they’re not wrong! Statista confirms the U.S. has the biggest immigrant population of any country in the world.
Most Americans can trace ancestry to an immigrant
In fact, the vast majority of Americans can trace at least part of their ancestry to an immigrant, either recently or centuries ago; with the exception of Native Americans and descendants of enslaved Africans.
Trump’s immigrant mother and grandparents
Even Trump, as anti-immigration as he is, descends from a Scottish-born mother and a father born in the US to German immigrants. All of them undocumented.
Immigrants make America great
In a time of xenophobia in the United States, it’s worth going over some of the great things loved by Americans that were invented by immigrants.
Doughnuts
Doughnuts are traced back to Dutch immigrants in 17th - 18th century New York. Moreover, their iconic ring shape and mass production became possible when a refugee from czarist Russia, Adolph Levitt, invented the doughnut machine in 1920, the Smithsonian reported.
Hamburgers
Though it’s disputed who and when precisely invented the hamburger, there’s little doubt that this iconic food was brought over by German immigrants serving Hamburg-style steaks in US restaurants during the 19th century, historians say.
Basketball
This popular sport was invented by a Canadian immigrant, Dr. James Naismith, in Massachusetts in 1891, according to Britannica. Naismith was a teacher at his local YMCA before he wrote the first official basketball rulebook and established the University of Kansas basketball program.
Blue jeans
We all attribute blue jeans to the Western world, and particularly to the US, where they were invented. However, they were not invented by an American, but by a German immigrant: Levi Strauss.
Levi’s jeans
As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, Strauss arrived from Bavaria to New York in 1847 and moved to San Francisco a few years later to start a wholesale company. Alongside a tailor of his, Jacob Davis, he created “denim work pants with pockets,” giving birth to a wardrobe staple.
The telephone
Most Americans know that Alexander Graham Bell is responsible for this great invention. However, probably very few know that he was a Scottish immigrant, according to History.com.
A Scot and an Italian
Moreover, even though Graham Bell (pictured) was the first person to patent the telephone in 1876, it was another immigrant, Italian Antonio Meucci who is credited for its invention in 1849, according to the Library of Congress.
Overlooked contributions
Due to Meucci’s economic hardships, he could not pay for his patent and his role in inventing the telephone was overlooked by the US until the year 2002 when the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring his work and contributions.
Photo: Alejandro Barba/Unsplash
Google
From early video screens to modern-day online research, immigrants have helped develop technology throughout American history, and the most popular search engine in the world is no different.
Russian co-founder
Google was founded in 1998 by two Stanford University students, American Larry Page and Russian Sergey Brin.
Immigrants in US workforce
Both legal and undocumented immigrants make up over 19% of the US workforce as of June 2024, and participate in the labor force at a higher rate than native-born workers, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
