immigrant

American  

[im-i-gruhnt] / ˈɪm ɪ grənt /

noun

• immigrants
  plural

1. a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.

2. an organism found in a new habitat.

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adjective

1. of or relating to immigrants and immigration.

   a department for immigrant affairs.

2. immigrating.

immigrant British  

/ ˈɪmɪɡrənt /

noun

1. 1. a person who comes to a country in order to settle there Compare emigrant

   2. ( as modifier )

      an immigrant community

2. an animal or plant that lives or grows in a region to which it has recently migrated

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonimmigrant
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• immigrants
  plural

Etymology

Origin of immigrant

An Americanism first recorded in 1780–90; from Latin immigrant-, stem of immigrāns “moving into,” present participle of immigrāre “to move into”; equivalent to im- ¹ + migrant

Explanation

The United States is a country of immigrants — people who come to one country from another country, in hopes of having a better life. An inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty welcomes new immigrants: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." Don't confuse the words immigrant and emigrant. If you come to a country, you are an immigrant and you emigrate from somewhere else. Ireland has many emigrants to America; America has many immigrants from Ireland. If your parents were immigrants to the United States, but you were born here, you are a citizen automatically.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

immigrant immigrants

“It’s become a deportation mill, and my clients have been placed on speeding rockets,” Navarrete, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, told me at her South Gate office around 8 on a recent Monday morning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

On Monday, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant named Pierre Damas Bel, who graduated from high school with honors in May, walked into traffic on I-70 in Springfield highway and was killed.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026

They help him and his American wife, Anna, also an educator, care for Boyagoda’s father, an immigrant from Sri Lanka who has dementia and lives with the family.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

Hawala transfers are frequently used for legitimate purposes, such as immigrant workers sending funds home to support their families in countries with limited access to banks.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Political scientists are divided over whether the twenty- five million people of Mexican ancestry in the United States represent an exception to the classic immigrant success story.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Haiti numbers among the top five countries from which immigrants in the direct-care workforce come, says Kezia Scales, vice-president of policy and research at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026

More than a year before the 2024 Games in Paris, the government began busing thousands of homeless people — many of them immigrants — to places such as Lyon and Marseille.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

Haitian immigrants are a major part of the workforce in long-term care.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026

One wild card: The hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have lost the temporary protective status that allowed them to stay in the United States.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026

Many Irish immigrants remained mired in poverty, relying on sporadic day labor to keep them afloat.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield