The Great Atlantic Migration, 1840–1914

In the century after 1815, an estimated 50 million or more Europeans left home, most for the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Australia. Push factors included rural poverty, population growth, famine in Ireland and persecution of Jewish communities in the Russian Empire, while pull factors included land, jobs and religious or political freedom. Steamships and railways cut journeys from weeks to days and made return trips possible, and many migrants, especially Italians, went back or crossed several times.

Letters and money sent home encouraged relatives to follow, creating chain migration and neighbourhoods such as Little Italy. Migrants faced suspicion and discrimination, yet they reshaped their new countries' languages, foods, religions and politics. Argentina's Spanish was influenced by Italian, and Buenos Aires became one of the most immigrant-heavy cities in the world.