Immigration has been a constant force shaping American life, both before and after national independence. Millions of individuals from around the world, with some degree of volition, decided that they could benefit from making the move to the United States or before that the British colonies of North America. Obviously, the lack of choice involved in the forcible enslavement of women and men from Africa renders their story different. But for the millions who calculated the advantages of emigration to America, economic concerns loomed large and linked those who arrived in the seventeenth century with those in the twenty-first. Changes in the technology of transportation and communication impacted their experiences as did evolving systems of law. But despite these differences those who participated in this massive human movement at the beginning of this history and those migrating today share much.