Providence Walks: West Side Waves of Immigration

Early Arrivals

ENGLISH
17th–18th Centuries

AFRICAN
17th–18th Centuries

19th & 20th Century Wave

IRISH
1820s–1860s

GERMAN
1860s–1910s

ITALIAN
1880s–1921

FRENCH CANADIAN, PORTUGUESE, TURKISH, SYRIAN & ARMENIAN
1890s–1921

RUSSIAN & POLISH
1890s–1930s

Today’s immigrants arrive under an immigration program designed by Congress and enacted in 1965. The refugees and asylum seekers living in today’s Providence are fleeing political upheaval and violent conflicts in their home countries and include (without being limited to) Vietnamese, ethnic Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, Colombian, Mexican, Dominican, Nigerian, Liberian and Ghanaian.