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

The candidates also clashed over immigration enforcement and deportation policy, healthcare, and high gas prices. — Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 9 Oct. 2026

Outside the courthouse, Harold Solis, an immigration attorney with the nonprofit Make the Road New York, criticized the ICE officers' actions. — Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026

The two countries have been mired in deadlocked trade negotiations, have sparred over the US threatening sanctions over India’s purchase of oil from Russia, and are now at loggerheads over immigration. — Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 9 Oct. 2026

This is to say nothing of longer-term issues like immigration, healthcare and housing affordability, that continue to go untouched. — Scott Warren, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for immigration

• abdication
• aberration
• abjuration
• abnegation
• abrogation
• acceptation
• acclamation
• acclimation
• accusation
• activation
• actuation
• acylation