Alexandru Nemoianu: „An Example and a Source of Inspiration“

The Romanian-American community is the result of a few major waves of immigration. Before World War I was the generation of the „mia şi drumul“ (a thousand dollars and the fare home) which was followed by the immigrants who arrived between the wars. They in turn were followed by the refugees after World War II, and by those who settled in the United States in the last few decades.
Each of these waves of immigrants had its own characteristics, but it is a fact that the first immigrants were those who accomplished the most; and, even more importantly, laid the foundations of what is today the Romanian-American community.
The Romanians started to come in a larger number after 1900. They started to come after they heard in letters from their Saxon and Hungarian neighbors that America was a very rich country with unlimited opportunities.
Those who immigrated at the beginning of the century intended to stay in America only a limited period of time, enough to earn some money and the fare home. With that money, they planned to pay debts, to buy land and to build houses.
The majority of the first Romanian immigrants were from Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina, at that time parts of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and they were subjected to numerous national and social persecutions. That circumstance was also one of the reasons >>>>>Alexandru Nemoianu>>>>>