immigration
Americannoun
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the movement of non-native people into a country in order to settle there
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the part of a port, airport, etc where government employees examine the passports, visas, etc of foreign nationals entering the country
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonimmigrationnoun
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preimmigrationnoun
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anti-immigrationadjective
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immigrationaladjective
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immigratoryadjective
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proimmigrationadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of immigration
Explanation
Immigration is the process of moving to a new country to stay. New York's Ellis Island was considered a gateway for European immigration to the United States during the early 1900's. Nowadays, people immigrate through airports instead of islands. The word migration is in immigration, which is something we think of birds doing when they fly South for the winter. It's not an accident — if American birds had little passports, they'd have to go through immigration when they got to Mexico. When humans immigrate, they have to follow the rules of the new country or else they risk getting in trouble. Immigration is the act of going to a new country, while emigration refers to the process of leaving one.
Vocabulary lists containing immigration
Human Geography - Middle School
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The United States
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Human Geography - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The 14 defendants – mainly Afghan nationals – are accused of manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Merz has vowed to return the CDU to its conservative roots and launched a crackdown on irregular immigration while trying to reboot a stagnant economy.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
The population is aging—the youngest of the baby boomer generation is eligible for Social Security retirement benefits this year—while the clampdown on immigration has reduced the supply of new workers into the labor force.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
A federal immigration agent is facing charges of making false statements about the January shooting of a Venezuelan migrant in Minnesota, US media reported Thursday.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
The Roaring Twenties stood at the tail end of a historic surge of immigration to the United States.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The move comes as local governments move to help immigrations caught up in the raids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2025
But now parts of Los Angeles have erupted in protests after immigrations officers intensified their raids at workplaces.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2025
Beck-Mewing said rents were rebounding after many property owners dropped rents during COVID, and will likely to continue to increase in 2023 due to increased rental demand after immigrations allowances were raised by almost one-third.
From Reuters ● Dec. 19, 2022
Mattoo said at the time that immigrations officials gave her no reason but told her she would not be able to travel internationally.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2022
At intervals since, there have been similar immigrations of pike to this reach when tides unusually high or salt drive the fish up from the lower reaches.
From The Handbook to the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk & Suffolk by G. Christopher Davies
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
