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:
Aliyah—Hebrew for “ascent”—is the term for Jewish immigration to Israel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Some groups describe their U.S.-based work as facilitating immigration or volunteerism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Two people were arrested at addresses in London this morning on suspicion of fraud and immigration offences, with Home Office officers also seizing phones, jewellery and thousands of pounds in cash.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
A few months later, a different judge found that the department had violated previous court restrictions by using projectile weapons to disperse crowds at protests against immigration enforcement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
He was with two women and five men, all handcuffed, all bound for Nigeria, and they were marched, at Heathrow Airport, through security and immigration and onto the plane, while other passengers stared.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
“That has changed the culture of U.S. immigrations agencies.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
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
It must be borne in mind that many thousands of people, men, women, and children, came to Oregon in the immigrations after 1846.
From Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon by Frederick Van Voorhies Holman
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.
