Eastern European Americans have been considered as a distinct pan-ethnic group which is based on tracing ancestry to one or more of the nations of Eastern Europe, or of a nation bordering with or otherwise ethnoculturally connected to the region. The group can be subdivided into nation-based groupings, such as Moldovan Americans or Russian Americans.
History
In the 1880s and 1890s, many Eastern Europeans settled in places like Cleveland, Ohio, which, along with German Americans, contributing to the population of Cleveland being 75 percent foreign-born by 1900. Between 1900 and the 1965 Hart–Celler Act, the majority of immigration into the US was from Southern and Eastern Europe. After the First World War, Eastern European Americans made up a significant part of the Pittsburg, Kansas mining community, dubbed the "Little Balkans", and cooperated in labor strikes with Swedish Americans, Austrian Americans and other European immigrant groups. During World War Two, the ethnic group were subjected to government measures and restrictions. Speaking in the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2003, Russ Feingold stated how "Eastern European Americans were unfairly arrested, detained, interned, or relocated". In the 1950s, Eastern European Americans, including second or third generation Americans, as well as more recent arrivals, such as those who were exiled or refugees from the Soviet Union, were faced with the conflicting position of needing to demonstrate loyalty to the United States, while advocating for policy which could help their former homelands. The 1950s marked a social breakthrough for many Eastern European Americans. In a New England Board of Higher Education interview with David Halberstam, the historian proposed how access to white society became possible for the pan-ethnic group, along with Italian Americans by the mid-decade point. Respresenting this social shift, the US Census Bureau found that Eastern European and Southern European Americans, born between 1956 and 1965, had practically converged in education outcomes with British Americans, and were, in fact, slightly outperforming Americans of solely British heritage in the completion of bachelor's degrees. In the mid-1970s, the Helsinki Accords caused some political tension between the Ford administration and the Americans of Eastern European heritage. Founded as an Irish Americanheritage unit, the 69th Infantry Regiment had a significant number of Eastern European Americans serving in 2001. In 2004, the marketing strategy of Czech Airlines targeted Central and Eastern European Americans to encourage tourism. In 2016, writing for the American Enterprise Institute ahead of the US 2016 election, political appointee Marc Thiessen suggested that Donald Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin was driving away Eastern European American voters, especially in relation to the Ukrainian crisis. Political scientistAgnia Grigas similarly argued that the GOP nominee was cause for concern for Americans with Eastern European heritage due to the alleged relationship with the Russian president. In 2019, as a part of the ongoing measles resurgence in the United States, Eastern European Americans were reported to be particularly affected by an outbreak in Washington state.
