 From 1939 to 1951, 40,000 Latvians immigrated to the United States with the help of the U.S. government and various social service and religious organizations.Although many of these refugees had been professionals in their country, in the United States they often had to take jobs as farmhands, custodians, or builders until they could learn English and find better paying jobs.Most Latvians settled in cities because of economic opportunities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago.