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The number of portuguese immigrants in the US may be insignificant for the host country, but is not at all insignificant for Portugal, considering the resident population here is only 10 million. In USA there are around 1.153.000 portuguese immigrants and descendants (probably the biggest portuguese community after the one in Brazil, although I couldn't find accurate data about this), of which more than 210.000 were actually born in Portugal, and of these about 92.500 were granted American citizenship. It is estimated that between 1820 and 1990 some 500.000 portuguese have emmigrated to the US. Nowadays, however, only about 1000 emmigrate to the US a year (of which more than half already have a close family member there). This is due to Portugal's economical and social growth, which is turning it into an "immigration country" rather than an "emmigration country", and also to the fact that a portuguese citizen is now a EU citizen, which makes it a lot easier to emmigrate to european countries than to anywhere else (no visa, green card or any kind of permit required to live and work in any EU country).

Portuguese emmigration to the US started in the 17th century, and since the beginning most immigrants came from the portuguese archipelago of Azores. The most intense period of portuguese immigration to the US was the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

There are people of portuguese origin in every american state. The one where there are fewer portuguese is North Dakota - about 300. The state with the largest portuguese community is California, where it rises up to 1% of the state's population (about 330.000). Massachusetts comes second, with 280.000, followed by Rhode Island, 91.000 (8,7% of the state's population) and New Jersey, 72.000.

I couldn't find you any useful links in english. Even in portuguese it was hard, and I couldn't get you the specific data you asked for. If I talk about my personal experience, my family members who live in the US are very well integrated into the american society, they are middle to high class (which they weren't when they arrived there), and work in many different areas. Most of the young ones attend or have attended college. As for the language, some of them taught their children portuguese and speak portuguese at home, others don't. An interesting thing though - most of them married other portuguese, even those who don't speak portuguese at home and don't seem very interested in celebrating their portuguese origin.

Sorry, this is all I could get you. So if you need more information, namely statistical data about age, gender, social class, educational level, etc. of the emmigrants, as well as info about portuguese associations, portuguese festivals (I know in some places our national day, June 10th, is celebrated on the streets) and other ways of embracing their portuguese heritage, I guess contacting the embassy or a consulate would be a good idea. I tried to find their websites, but most of them don't even have one and the others are in portuguese only, so I'll leave you some contacts here. Good luck on your research!

Embaixada de Portugal em Washington

2125- Kalorama Road, N.W

Washington DC 20008

Phone: (202) 328 86 10/ 328 90 25/ 328 87 89

Secção Consular da Embaixada de Portugal em Washington

2310 Tracy Place, NY

Washington. DC, DC 20008

Phone: (202) 332 30 07

Consulado Geral de Portugal em Boston

899 Boylston Street, 2nd Floor

Boston, MA 02115

Phone: (617) 536 87 40

Cônsul Honorário de Portugal no Hawaii

18 Kanakanut Astreet

Honolulu, Hawaii 96819

Phone: (808) 841 28 28

Cônsul de Portugal em Los Angeles

1801 Av. Of the Stars, Suite 400

Los Angeles, Califórnia 90067

Phone: (1310) 277 14 91

Consulado de Portugal em Newark

The Legal Center at One Riverfront Plaza

Newark, NJ 07102

Phone: (973) 643 42 00

Consulado de Portugal em New Bedford

628 Pleasant Street, PO Box 4205

New Bedford. MA 02741

Phone: (508) 997 61 51 / 993 57 41

Consulado de Portugal em New York

630 Fifth Avenue, Suite 801

New York, NY 10111

Phone: (212) 246 45 80/1/2

Consulado de Portugal em Providence

Pine Street, 6th Floor, Hanley BLDG

Providence, RI 02903

Phone: (401) 272 20 03/ 4

Consulado Geral de Portugal em San Francisco

3298 Washington Street

San Francisco, CA 94115

Phone: (415) 346 34 00

Casa dos Açores de Hilmar

8585 North Lander Ave.

Hilmar, CA 95324

Phone: (209) 669 62 46

Some are poor and less "Schooled" others are rich and more eduicated.

People from Portugal speak Portuguese.But many can speak more then one Language.

Portuguese are assertive People.We do all kind of Jobs.

From Science to Medicine to Engineering but also Builders and others.

Portuguese People are hard working and not much fussy about what job needs done.

For what it's worth, I would welcome Portugese immigrants to the USA. Most of our current immigrants are from the third world, so we need some from Western nations like Portugal to come and join us in maintaining a Western, First Word society.

There's plenty in Brazil, if that helps. It's the country's language, too.