<P> The history of immigration to the United States details the movement of people to the United States starting with the first European settlements from around 1600 . Beginning around this time, British and other Europeans settled primarily on the east coast . Later Africans were imported as slaves . The United States experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe . Immigrants sometimes paid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants after their arrival in the New World . Later, immigration rules became more restrictive; the ending of numerical restrictions occurred in 1965 . Recently, cheap air travel has increased immigration from Asia and Latin America . </P> <P> Attitudes towards new immigrants have cycled between favorable and hostile since the 1790s . </P> <P> In 1607 the first successful English colony settled in Jamestown, Virginia . Once tobacco was found to be a profitable cash crop, many plantations were established along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland . </P> <P> Thus began the first and longest era of immigration, lasting until the American Revolution in 1775; during this time settlements grew from initial English toe - holds from the New World to British America . It brought Northern European immigrants, primarily of British, German, and Dutch extraction . The British ruled from the mid-17th century and they were by far the largest group of arrivals, remaining within the British Empire . Over 90% of these early immigrants became farmers . </P>

When did immigration start in the united states