immigration

noun

im·​mi·​gra·​tion ˌi-mə-ˈgrā-shən 

plural immigrations

: an act or instance of immigrating

specifically : travel into a country for the purpose of permanent residence there

Especially during these months when there has been constant talk of immigration and its myriad challenges, both here and on European national borders …

—Bob Greene

illegal/legal immigration

immigration reform/policy/law

Drawing historical comparisons is always a fraught process, especially when the subject is as contentious as immigration.

—James Hannan

There is only a passing comment on Chinese and Japanese immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, plus a short section on the truly global wave of immigrants that swept into America after the Second World War …

—Nicholas Guyatt

The Middle Ages is the story of successive migrations and immigrations …

—Janet L. Nelson

immigrational

ˌi-mə-ˈgrā-sh(ə-)nəl 

adjective

studied the region's immigrational history

Examples of immigration in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pritzker said the example of Trump aide Stephen Miller proposing to send National Guard troops from red states to blue ones to enforce federal immigration policy is an example of one question the new group aims to answer. —Nick Coltrain, The Denver Post, 13 Nov. 2024

Content by this author: The Case Against Immigration In the United States, there is strong evidence that the national interest has not been well served by the country’s immigration policy over the last five decades. —Steven Camarota, Foreign Affairs, 12 Nov. 2024

Many welcome Trump’s more strict immigration policy. —Kristen Taketa, The Mercury News, 11 Nov. 2024

Previous presidents have stepped up the enforcement of immigration laws, notably Trump in his first term and Obama. —Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica, 6 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above