Some came to escape religious persecution or political oppression, some to join families already here.
They identify themselves with the Pilgrims fleeing to America to escape oppression.
These emigrants included those from Okinawa, to escape oppression by the Japanese government after the island was taken over in 1878.
The time has come for the Iraqi people to escape oppression, find freedom and live in hope.
I was much in the same position as a political refugee who had hijacked an airliner to escape political oppression.
Several former prostitutes talk about converting to Christianity, escaping sexual oppression, and going on to do schooling or to get married.
As blacks arrived to escape oppression, they moved farther down and made horse wagon trails into dirt roads forming a small community.
Some are economic refugees who came to Britain seeking a better life; the rest are trying to escape oppression and even torture.
His grandparents had immigrated from central and eastern Europe to escape oppression and poverty.
But the work ended with a struggle to escape oppression.