Songfacts®:

• Sedaka wrote this song with the lyricist Phil Cody, who also wrote the Carpenters hit "Solitaire." Cody told Songfacts: "I wanted to write a song for my dad. My dad came to this country; he wanted to be a singing star. He worked in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera before he got married, and then put down his singing career to become a tradesman. My dad and I, up until I was about 28, were constantly at each other's throats. He wasn't real happy with the direction I'd taken. He thought I was destined to be a bum for the entirety of my life. And then he actually went into a recording studio in Sicily and did a version of 'Solitaire' in Italian. And then I said, Wow, I've scored with my dad. My dad thinks I'm cool now. So I thought as payback I would try to write about my dad's point of view of coming to this country and how much promise there was."
• Immigration became a political wedge issue in the '00s, but even in the '70s, Americans were divided on the topic. This song takes a positive on immigration. The song's lyricist Phil Cody explained: "At that time we were starting to see immigration problems. I think I was watching a news report, and I remember thinking, That's not the way Americans treat people who come to our country. And I wanted to write about that. I was put off by the Vietnam War and how our stance in the world just didn't seem friendly and welcoming. And I wanted to write nostalgically about my father's period when he came, feeling such promise and hope."
• This was part of Neil Sedaka's huge comeback album, Sedaka's Back. After going hitless for a decade, he made a deal to issue the album Elton John's Rocket Records. With Elton's endorsement and promotional push, the first single, "Laughter In The Rain," went to #1 in America. The obvious next single was "Love Will Keep Us Together," but Sedaka had issued that in France in 1973, so he chose this one instead. "I picked 'The Immigrant' because it was a beautiful song and a beautiful record," he explained.
  
  Since he didn't put out "Love Will Keep Us Together" as a single in America, that left the door open for Captain & Tennille to do so. It was their first single, and the biggest hit of 1975. Near the end of that year, Sedaka landed yet another #1 with "Bad Blood."