As we wrestle with the myriad issues of immigration — legal vs. illegal immigrants, border security, assimilation, citizenship — are there lessons to be learned from past waves of immigration? An estimated 34 million people sought freedom and opportunity in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The first wave came in the 1840s, fleeing starvation and the disruptions of the Industrial Revolution, most of them from Ireland, England, Germany and Scandinavia.