Portuguese immigration

The Portuguese have a long tradition of migration—to Brazil, to North America, and to other European countries.

Polish immigration

Poles represent the largest eastern European immigrant group in the United States and the second largest in Canada, behind Ukrainians.

Plyler v. Doe (1982)

In its 1982 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the state of Texas had failed to support sufficiently its case for the legitimate right of the state to deny education to illegal immigrants.

Pilgrims and Puritans

The Pilgrims and the Puritans were two theologically related Christian groups that developed within the Church of England in the 16th century.

Picture brides (mail-order brides)

This informal term refers to women who married single immigrant men they had never met but with whom they had exchanged photographs, usually through family intermediaries.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia became in the 1680s William Penn’s “greene countrie towne,” the capital city of the ethnically diverse Pennsylvania colony.

Peruvian immigration

Significant Peruvian immigration to North America began in the 1960s and reflects the unusually diverse ethnic heritage of South America’s third largest country.

Pennsylvania colony

Frustrated with the proprietary politics in the New Jersey colony, William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681.

William Penn (1644–1718) colonist, religious leader

The founder of the Pennsylvania colony, William Penn brought religious tolerance and cultural diversity to the English colonies in America.

P.C. 695 (Canada) (1931)

In 1931, the Canadian cabinet passed Order-in-Council P.C. 695 prohibiting almost all immigration in order to meet the growing challenges of economic depression.

John Orlando Pastore (1907–2000) politician

The first Italian-American governor and U.S. senator, John Pastore represented the post–World War II shift in public opinion that enabled politicians of southern and eastern European descent to play a more prominent role in statewide and national politics.

Palestinian immigration

Palestinians are Arabs and generally were counted as part of Ottoman or Arab immigration figures prior to World War II (1939–45).

Pakistani immigration

Pakistanis only began to immigrate to North America in significant numbers since the mid-1960s, when immigration policies in both the United States and Canada abandoned racial quotas.

Page Act (United States) (1875)

Padrone system

A padrone (from the Italian padroni for “patrons” or “bosses”) was a middleman in the labor trade, helping poor immigrants obtain transportation to North America, jobs upon arrival, and basic needs in an alien society.