immigrant

/ˈɪməgrənt/

/ˈɪmɪgrənt/

Other forms: immigrants

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.

Definitions of immigrant

1. noun

   a person who comes to a country where they were not born in order to settle there
   type of:

   migrant, migrator

   traveler who moves from one region or country to another