Immigrants from Ireland have been giving their own contribution to the culture of the United States for centuries now, and many cities in the country boast large Irish immigrant communities that have grown exponentially over the course of the last few decades. Irish people have been prompted to come to America by recurring economic difficulties in their own country and are often drawn to established communities because of the feeling of familiarity and unity.
Ireland has lately increased its controls on immigration, but many more people have been motivated to immigrate to the United States because of falling salaries, reduced job opportunities and rising rates of unemployment. Many Irish citizens arrive in the United States as tourists but start work and decide to stay, making statistics on the exact number of Irish immigrants in the country difficult to determine.
Major American cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco have witnessed a sharp increase in the amount of immigrants from Ireland that have been arriving over the last few years, with a report from the Central Statistics Office in Ireland indicating that over 20,000 people came to the United States from Ireland between 2010 and 2013, a rise of more than 50% from the previous three years.
A lot of Irish immigrants feel a strong connection between Ireland and the United States due to the fact that they already have friends and family members over there, with most immigrants being highly educated individuals in their 20s.