24 ms·
Show HN: Map of immigration to the U.S. since 1820
- bunkydoo 10y agoWe're gonna build a dome around the continental US and make the united nations pay for it!!
- bhandziuk 10y agoThis is a cool map and there's tons of information in it. It'd be nice to see more details, like the actual numbers instead of just a top 3 counties list. Or if I pause the timeline and hover over a country it'd be neat if it listed that year's exodus. Why do come countries brighten in some years but then dim later on? Edit: ah I see the associated blog post has a little more info, especially about the brightness question. http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/
- mgalka 10y agoYes. It originally did allow you to hover over the countries to see more information. But combined with everything else it required too much memory and caused it to run slow on mobile browsers. Doesn't seem like removing a tooltip should make the difference, but it allowed me to simplify the map, remove jquery, and make a few other simplifications to the code. If I were to make it over again, I would use WebGL for the particles next time instead of Canvas, and performance problems wouldn't be an issue.
- bhandziuk 10y agotoo bad. Great map otherwise
- slezyr 10y agoIs something wrong with Ukraine? At the end there a lot of dots coming from it, but it doesn't changes it's color. And it has same color as Russia.
- slezyr 10y agoSomething wrong with site or my browser. It differs from this video https://twitter.com/galka_max/status/727895094255190016?ref_src=twsrc^tfw https://twitter.com/galka_max/status/727895094255190016?ref_...
- josho 10y agoI love new ways to express data. But, as I see animations like this I become a little anxious as I'd like to absorb the information, but if I look too closely in one area then I risk missing a bigger pattern or trend. After watching, I'm convinced that a good old line chart would have been a better representation of the data. Perhaps with some added dynamic behaviour.
- mjevans 10y agoI really wanted to see both /where/ immigration was going /to/ and also where it was from. Like color mixing and destinations.
- irrational 10y agoLooks like they were all going to Kansas to me.
- freshyill 10y agoYeah, it's not terribly helpful to see that they went to the US. Seeing this broken down by county would have been so much more interesting.
- curiousgal 10y agohttp://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/
- freshyill 10y agoAt least it's not a YouTube video. I've seen some really cool videos that I wished were interactive, for things like territory changes during WWII.
- jlarocco 10y agoUnless I'm missing something, I don't see how this is any more interactive than a YouTube video.
- 10y ago
- mmanfrin 10y agoSurprised me how much came from Canada -- has that been a thing, or is Canada a proxy for other countries?
- chm 10y agoThere was a massive (relatively speaking) emigration of Canadians (apparently mostly Canadiens français) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries[1]. The estimates for the period are of about 160K to 800K (including descendants) Canadians living in the USA, most of them living in the North-East, and most of them of French descent. An American census of 1870 counted about 160K in New England. It's hard to get accurate numbers, but there definitely was a substantial number of emigrants. http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/bibliotheque-virtuelle/publication-html/?tx_iggcpplus_pi4[file]=publications/pubd101/d101ch2.html http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/bibliotheque-virtuelle/publicatio...
- cperciva 10y agoSurprised me how much came from Canada -- has that been a thing Looking at the absolute number of immigrants per year skews things a bit in Canada's favour; the low barrier to movement means that there's relatively more Canadians who live in the USA for short durations. I'm sure that Canada is a much smaller proportion of the stock of immigrants than than its proportion of the annual inflow.
- joe5150 10y agoJust anecdata, but my great-great- and great-grandparents emigrated from Serbia via Canada, ultimately ending up in St Paul, at the beginning of WWII.
- curtis 10y agoI found this surprising as well. However, I'm wondering if there were nearly as many people leaving the U.S. for Canada at the same time. The source data might not be looking at "net" immigration, and for most countries it wouldn't matter, but it might for Canada.
- cubix 10y ago
- k__ 10y agoDidn't know so much Germans came to the US back in the days.
- chadgeidel 10y agoAs a 4th generation son of a Midwest-bound German immigrant - it was the fertile land which drew many of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts
- drivers99 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans#/media/File:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans#/media/File:C... The light blue counties are the ones with German being the most commonly reported ancestry during the 2000 census. Personal note: Being from the Dakotas originally, it's interesting seeing some of my great-grandparents' backgrounds nearby: Native American, German, Norwegian, Finnish (further away), plus a few others that aren't nearby.
- oblio 10y agoGerman-Americans are (were?) the largest group in the US. It almost seems a miracle that German didn't become the main language in the US. I guess that since the dominant groups were English-speaking they had to adapt in order to get jobs.
- sgnelson 10y agoWhile it was later on, World War I had a very large impact in terms of getting rid of the German language (and other cultural aspects) in the US.
- Maultasche 10y agoBack then, it was like Spanish is in California. You see it everywhere, a huge number of people speak it, and there are a lot of Spanish-language media. However, English is still the dominant language. German used to be everywhere, being heard in the streets, with large numbers of German-language newspapers and cultural clubs. The Germans, being Germans, liked to organize themselves into clubs. It gradually died out, as immigrants stopped teaching it to their children. Usually the children of immigrants learned the language at home, but they didn't usually pass it on to their children. World Wars I and II did a huge amount to suppress German culture and language, but it would have eventually died out anyways. By World War II, German was still common enough that the Army was able to find large numbers of German interpreters among the young men who had spoken it with their parents. My grandmother knew German as a child, but the language in the family had switched to English by the time she was about 10 years old. Once she was grown, she wasn't married to a German speaker, and hadn't spoken it in years anyway, so none of her descendants learned it. By the time I talked to her about it in her 80s, the only German she could remember were a few lines of some children's poem she recited when she was a child. I suspect that this will eventually happen to Spanish, although the continued migration of Spanish-speaking immigrants will slow down the process. Eventually, the non-Spanish-speaking descendants will greatly outnumber those who speak Spanish, and the language will slowly decline.
- chm 10y agoAccording to this, Canada was in the top 3 from 1910 to 1969 (being #1 from 1920 to 1949). Mexico has been #1 since 1960 up to present. It would be interesting to see the number of immigrants per country (at least in the top 3) as well as the proportion of immigrants wrt the total population during each decade.
- shimon 10y agoAwesome viz! Would like some perspective on the overall volume, too. Maybe add a bar chart above the timeline/slider showing total immigration in each year? Maybe even alongside a graph of total US population growth so it's clear how much of the growth is due to immigration.
- hk__2 10y agoAlso don’t forget emigration. I don’t know the numbers for the US but for example in the EU some countries had more emigrants than immigrants during some years (e.g. Spain in 2010). (edit: clarification)
- r-w 10y agoThis is an amazing chart! I wish you’d used great circles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_circle) though.
- mgalka 10y agoThanks. They actually are great circles, generated using arc.js. As they approach the poles the arcs look a little funny, but that is only because it is a cylindrical map projection.
- c3534l 10y agoI'd like to see this as a percentage of the world population since the increase over time makes it hard to see exactly what's happening.
- mgalka 10y agoThis post gives some more information: http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ http://metrocosm.com/animated-immigration-map/ There is a chart showing the major immigration flows as a percentage of U.S. population.
- curiousgal 10y agoThat one spot in Oklahoma must be popping.
- matthewbauer 10y agoDoes "United Kingdom" in the early 20th century mean just the British Isles? Or is India, Australia, Middle East also included under "UK"?
- tequila_shot 10y agoUnited Kingdom is United Kingdom.
- allendoerfer 10y agoHere is an explanation I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 And it gets even more complicated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O37yJBFRrfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O37yJBFRrfg
- leighmcculloch 10y agoAustralia has very little immigration to the US it seems.
- lukeholder 10y agoToo right mate, it's too far to swim!
- vacri 10y agohttp://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml
- bongdongAU 10y agoWho, living in Australia, would want to immigrate to US? Most of the people I know would be happy to go as far as Hawaii (for a holiday) but moving to US from Downunder.......hmm.......you would have to have a good bloody reason, especially given the possible outcome of the upcoming elections. As for the rest of the countries mapped on this viz, I totally understand.
- vacri 10y agoThe people who I've personally known that migrated from Aus to the US do so for very lucrative economic reasons (job in software development or Hollywood) or for love. I don't think anyone is going to move in either direction between the two countries in search of a significantly better life.
- ktRolster 10y agoIn the last 10 years, immigration has really picked up from all over the world, whereas earlier it was just a few countries.
- jobesian4lyfe 10y agoThat's because in the last ten years, America has proven to have a great quality of life. Clean roads, better facilities and plenty of well paying jobs.
- allendoerfer 10y agoOther countries have that, too, some to a better extent. What they don't have is Hollywood and the English language.
- Retra 10y agoThe US is also fairly politically stable.
- tstrimple 10y agoHow has it proven that? What I find interesting is that early on, our immigrants were predominantly from developed nations. Over time, this shifted more and more to developing nations. To me that seems to indicate that we're not seen as the land of opportunity among first world nations any longer. There are better options with more economic mobility and social services. Unless gun ownership is your primary motivating factor for immigration, there are many places where the working poor are better off going.
- zhemao 10y agoBoth of these theories seem too simplistic. From the visualization, it didn't seem like immigration from Europe necessarily decreased in the late 20th century. It's just that the proportion from the rest of the world increased. Also, countries like Ireland, Germany, and Italy weren't really "developed" prior to the 20th century (and to be fair, neither was the US). Germany and Italy weren't even united countries until late in the 19th century and Ireland was a British possession until the early 20th. It's possible Europeans are just staying where they are because conditions in their home countries have improved. Or, more likely, they are emigrating to richer EU countries because the Schengen agreement makes this much easier. Another factor is that a big draw for European immigrants in the 19th century was the large amount of unclaimed farmland out west. This is no longer the case now. As for immigration from non-Western countries, they are coming over in larger numbers now because they are actually allowed to. Prior to 1965, quotas heavily favored Western European countries over the rest of the world[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Ac...
- danielam 10y agohttp://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_PCT018&prodType=table http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/p...
- namenotrequired 10y agoThis seems to exclude forced immigration from Africa, which was a large majority until halfway the 19th century. They are taken into account in the same site's visualisation of New Yorkers: http://metrocosm.com/where-new-yorkers-come-from/ http://metrocosm.com/where-new-yorkers-come-from/
- DrScump 10y ago<This seems to exclude forced immigration from Africa, which was a large majority until halfway the 19th century> No, importation of slaves to the U.S. was banned in 1808. Most slaves were native-born, to slaves and descendants of slaves.
- swombat 10y agoThe case of the Amistad in 1839 (fictionalised in a famous Spielberg movie) shows that this was not at all the case in reality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._The_Amistad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._The_Amistad I'm sure many slaves were slave-born in that period, but it seems they were still importing people from Africa en masse.
- ZoeZoeBee 10y agoSeriously a fraction of the total slave trade from Africa went to the United States. The vast majority of slaves from Africa went to the Caribbean Islands and South America. >Of the more than 10 million enslaved Africans to eventually reach the Western Hemisphere, just 388,747—less than 4 percent of the total—came to North America. This is an excellent infographic showing the travels of the ships of the time via their shipslogs. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/06/animated_interactive_of_the_history_of_the_atlantic_slave_trade.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_s...
- hx87 10y agoThere was the occasional slave-running ship, yes, but I doubt they did business 'en masse'; the profits if successful were good, but besides the prohibition on the trade from the US, they had to deal with interdiction by the Royal Navy, and in those days you did not mess with the Royal Navy.
- PoorBloke123 10y agoSince this page states" "Most illegal immigration is not included" I'd like to see one of these representing the flow of illegal immigrants (especially from and across Mexico) since Obama won his first election (and second).
- kiliantics 10y agoIs there a way to get reliable data on that?
- matthewmcg 10y agoHere are some data based on community surveys. These show a net outflow during that period: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/what-we-know-about-illegal-immigration-from-mexico/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/20/what-we-know...
- WildUtah 10y agoThere's a new outflow of illegals from the US to Mexico since 2007. But net inflow of legal migrants from Mexico has been strong and much larger than illegal flows every one of those years. And net inflow of illegals from Central America that cross Mexico is very high and has been rising as illegal inflows from Mexico fall.
- jnmandal 10y agowhy are you using an iframe?
- mgalka 10y agoThe graphic is a canvas element overlaid on an svg element. I wasn't able to figure out a way of making the whole thing responsive so I just put it in a responsive iframe. I'm sure there is a better solution. Would love to hear if anyone knows.
- notahacker 10y agoCoincidentally, I saw these state by state migrant origin maps for each decade in animated form on Twitter this morning (showing numbers resident rather than numbers flowing in) http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/from-ireland-to-germany-to-italy-to-mexico-how-americas-source-of-immigrants-has-changed-in-the-states-1850-to-2013/ http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/from-ireland-to-german... Some predictable phenomena (Cubans being the most common migrant group in Florida from 1970 onwards, Mexicans being the most common migrants in Texas and the West Coast initially and then most places) and some weird ones (why were Laotians so common in Minnesota in 1990, and why is the Ethiopian diaspora the largest in South Dakota as of 2013?)
- dmoy 10y agoRE: Laos in Minnesota Good chance this is actually a lot of Hmong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hmong_in_Minneapolis%E2%80%93Saint_Paul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hmong_in_Minnea... (source: went to school in the 90s in Minnesota, like 30% of my classmates were Hmong) Similar deal with Somali in Minneapolis - once there's critical mass of a given group in a given city, it increases the immigration pull because there's a support network. Right: if you do local stuff in Minneapolis, it's trivial to get paperwork in Somali, or find a Hmong translator.
- kilroy123 10y agoDefinitely Hmong, they sent all Hmongs to Fresno, California and Minneapolis–Saint Paul.
- notahacker 10y agoI understand the benefits of diasporas settling in one city, just surprised it's one in Minnesota. In the UK the smaller diasporas all seem to end up concentrated in London. My favourite exception to this is Ugandan Asians fleeing Idi Amin, the majority of whom chose to settle in Leicester, a city many of them first heard of through adverts Leicester City Council took out in the Ugandan press addressed to "the many families in Uganda considering coming to Leicester" urging them not to come; they've been one of the UK's most successful minority groups ever since.
- marcoperaza 10y ago1965 Immigration Act. That's when we stopped caring about making immigration work for our country, and started caring about doing whatever it takes to not be called racist.
- dasfasf 10y agoIt's neat how you can see immigration policy being enacted though. China goes dark in 1882 (Chinese Exclusion Act), then Russia lights up for the New Immigration near the turn of the century and goes dark in 1924 (Immigration Act of 1924), and then everything opens up in 1965.
- mxfh 10y agoHave you seen http://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/foreignborn/#decade=1850 http://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/foreignborn/#decade=1850 ? I starts 30 years later but has data on county level. https://github.com/americanpanorama/panorama-foreignborn https://github.com/americanpanorama/panorama-foreignborn
- mgalka 10y agoThanks. Cool graphic. Had not seen it.
- lifeformed 10y agoThey should've horizontally centered the US on the map so that that immigrants from Asia/Russia don't have to jump across the map.
- williesleg 10y agoOne question, is this legal or illegal immigration? Not trying to be non-PC here, just wondering.
- namelezz 10y agoWhy are you wasting your time making this? A map of US hate crimes against immigrants would be more helpful for newcomers than this.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't post nasty dismissive comments to HN, especially in response to new work.
- stevofolife 10y agoAnyone know what type of format these data are in?
- senthil_rajasek 10y ago"The quality of mercy is not strained"
- fiatjaf 10y agoI was waiting for US to explode in the end of the animation.
- hyperliner 10y agoit exploded in many ways: new technology startups, innovation, etc.
- mgalka 10y agoHa! Don't forget Nobel Prizes.
- hyperliner 10y agoAnd we don't have to use Altavista anymore! That right there makes it all worth it!!!
- baran1 10y agoHi, nitpick comment, but the boundaries of the countries on this map are not changing over the course of almost a century.
- known 10y ago3,443,063 Indians in USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-resident_Indian_and_person_of_Indian_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-resident_Indian_and_person...
- marymkearney 10y agoThis is beautiful. Thanks for making it.