By the end of the 1800s, many people believed Baltimore was by far the most important American city for immigration.  Much like other east coast cities, Baltimore was a very international city at the time. English barely edged out German as the native language spoken the most in the city of Baltimore.  The Chinese language became more important as Chinese immigrant populations swelled to new heights during the American Civil War.   Recruited to build the railroads, by the 1870s nearly every city of significant size – including Baltimore – had a “Chinatown” made up of restaurants, laundries, and a number of Chinese schools, temples, and homes.  It became increasingly clear that there was now a need for Baltimore Translation Services.  Baltimore was a unique city in that it did not experience an anti-immigrant movement like most other American cities. Therefore, Baltimore translators flocked to the area and enjoyed full employment for many years. Boston, much like Baltimore, is also a port of entry for immigrants to the United States.  In addition, Boston is similar to Baltimore in that it has openly welcomed immigrants throughout history.

Because of Boston’s convenient location and European look, it has attracted many settlers from all of Europe and Russia.  The 2000 census revealed that Russians and Eastern Europeans make up some of the largest ethnic groups in the city.  This has brought about the need for professional Boston Translation Services that cater to Russian language translation, among others.  Areas like Chelsea in Boston have a high concentration of translation services, but Brookline seems to specialize in the Russian language.

Chicago is a major midwestern city, but it shares characteristics with east coast cities like Boston and Baltimore.  French explorers were among the first settlers in the area known as Chicago.  Immigrants to the Chicago area came mainly during the 1840s and 1850s.  As Europeans were fleeing famine in Europe, Chicago was accepting them as new inhabitants of their city.  Chicago translators came into high demand due to the fact that over half of Chicago’s residents were foreigners.  By the end of the 19th century, most of the residents of Chicago had come over from Europe. German translators, Polish translators and Italian translators were most in demand, but Korean language translations and Japanese language translation agencies were also sprouting up all over the city.  During the period from 1924 to 1965, when U.S. immigration was stopped with the exception of refugees, Chicago’s ethnic groups consolidated their neighborhoods and increased in number.  At the close of the Second World War, thousands of Japanese who had been interred in California moved to Chicago to start a new life.  Along with the growth in the Japanese population in the city of Chicago came an increasing demand for Chicago Translation Services.

We have reached the end of another article about U.S. immigration trends and the rise of translation service companies in the United States.  Our next article in this series will focus on the growth of translation companies in Atlanta, Dallas, and Las Vegas.