Ethiopia Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
 * See the Wiki article: United States Emigration and Immigration for a thorough listing of U.S. immigration records which include Ethiopians.
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Ethiopia, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Africa, index and images, ($)


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Ethiopia, index and images, ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Africa, index and images, ($)


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, index and images, ($)

Finding the Town of Origin in Ethiopia
See the Wiki article: U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin

Ethiopia Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Ethiopia

 * The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, beginning when it was invaded by Fascist Italy in early October 1935, and Italian occupation of the country (1936–1941). Ethiopia had over 75,000 Italian settlers during the Italian occupation of the country. After independence, many Italians remained for decades after receiving full pardons from Emperor Selassie, as he saw the opportunity to continue modernization efforts. However, due to the Ethiopian Civil War in 1974, nearly 22,000 Italo-Ethiopians left the country.
 * In the 2000s, some Italian companies returned to operate in Ethiopia, and many Italian technicians and managers arrived with their families, residing mainly in the metropolitan area of the capital.
 * In 2009, Ethiopia hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 135,200. The majority of this population came from Somalia (approximately 64,300 persons), Eritrea (41,700) and Sudan (25,900). The Ethiopian government required nearly all refugees to live in refugee camps.

Emigration From Ethiopia

 * The largest diaspora community is found in the United States.
 * A large Ethiopian community is also found in Israel, where Ethiopians make up almost 1.9% of the population; almost the entire community are members of the Beta Israel community.
 * There are also large number of Ethiopian emigrants in Saudi Arabia, Italy, Lebanon, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Australia.

Ethiopian Americans
See the Wiki article: United States Emigration and Immigration for a thorough listing of U.S. immigration records which include Ethiopians.
 * Overall, approximately 20,000 Ethiopians moved to the West to achieve higher education and conduct diplomatic missions from 1941 to 1974. However, the net movement of permanent immigrants remained low during this period as most temporary immigrants ultimately returned to Ethiopia with a Western education to near assured political success, while the relative stability of the country determined that few Ethiopians would be granted asylum in the United States.
 * The passing of the 1965 Immigration Act, the Refugee Act of 1980, as well as the Diversity Visa Program of the Immigration Act of 1990, contributed to an increased emigration from Ethiopia to the United States, prompted by political unrest during the Ethiopian Civil War.
 * The majority of Ethiopian immigrants arrived later in the 1990s, following the Eritrean–Ethiopian War. Immigration to the U.S. from Ethiopia during this 1992-2002 period averaged around 5,000 individuals per year.[9]
 * Since the 1990s, around 1000 Hebrew speaking, Ethiopian Jewish Israelis have settled in the US, with around half of the Ethiopian Israeli community living in New York.
 * Ethiopian Americans have since established ethnic enclaves in various places around the country, particularly in the Washington D. C., and Minneapolis-Saint Paul areas. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California, has also come to be known as Little Ethiopia, owing to its many Ethiopian businesses and restaurants, as well as a significant concentration of residents of Ethiopian and Eritrean ancestry.
 * According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 68,001 people reported Ethiopian ancestry in 2000. Between 2007 and 2011, there were approximately 151,515 Ethiopia-born residents in the United States. If the descendants of Ethiopian-born migrants (the second generation and up) are included, the estimates range upwards of 460,000 in the United States (of which approximately 250,000 are in Washington, D. C.; 96,000 in Los Angeles; and 20,000 in New York).Unofficial estimates suggest that the Washington, D. C., area has an Ethiopian population of 150,000 to 250,000.

Other Ethiopian Emigrants

 * Ethiopian Australians
 * Ethiopian Canadians
 * Ethiopian Jews in Israel

For Further Reading

 * Records of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews
 * Save All Ethiopian Jews records, 1979-2007
 * Ethiopian Aliyah
 * Archival Sources on the Yemeni Arabs in Urban Ethiopia: The Dessie Municipality