Romanian presence on the North American continent started towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The history of American Romanians started around the year 1895 with the wave of massive emigrations, especially from Transylvania, Bucovina and Banat—Romanian territories which were at the time under Austro-Hungarian domination. The main characteristic of this first generation of Romanian immigrants, named “the thousand and the return fare” generation (1895-1924), was an economic one (these people planned to spend a limited amount of time in “The New World,” just as long as they needed to save $1,000 and their trip expenses, and they would go back home). The next phase in the evolution of the Romanian element in America is that of “becoming Romanian-Americans” (1924-1948). During this period of time, those who stayed in America, as well as those who returned to Romania but soon came back, adapted to and got integrated into North American structures and society; the idea of going back to the mother country for good was abandoned or kept as a faraway dream at most. The third phase in the history of Romanian-Americans—the anti-Communist exile (1949-1989)—is fundamentally different from the preceding phases in that the main cause of emigration was a political one. This new wave of immigrants contributed in a decisive way to the affirmation of the irreversible identity of the Romanian-American community with regard to the “old country.” After the fall of Communism in December 1989, the so-called “quantitative” phase (from 1990 to the present) began, a phase which is very similar to the pioneer age of Romanian immigration into North America, in that the economic aspect is its main characteristic (read more).