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Thirty percent of Philadelphia’s foreign born come from Europe. Many are Eastern Europeans that arrived after the end of the cold war.

Philadelphia has been a land of opportunity for European immigrants for hundreds of years. Europeans were the first to arrive, fleeing religious persecution and seeking the economic opportunity of the new world. William Penn, Philadelphia's founder, was an immigrant from Great Britain, and envisioned the city as a haven of religious tolerance, encouraging those persecuted in Europe to settle here.