During the modern era, Bukovina and Bessarabia were under foreign rule, and the inhabitants of these provinces were divided by their compatriots from the rest of Moldova. Until the 1930s, both in Bukovina and in Bessarabia, there were important immigration and colonization of the population, which significantly changed the ethnic structure of the population. Subsequently, in both provinces the extent of these migration processes decreased, and the population number increased especially in the natural way. The colonizations with allogeneic population were much more significant in Bessarabia, especially in Bugeac, compared to Bucovina. In the south of Bessarabia, large areas were compactly colonized with Bulgarians, Gagauzians, Germans, Russians and Ukrainians, which contributed to the rapid decrease of the share of the Romanian population. In Bukovina, fewer colonies were established with Germans, Hungarians, Lipovans or Slovaks, especially in the central and southern part of the province. Due to the lack of large open lands, most of the settlements in Bukovina were established dispersed or even within villages already inhabited by Romanians. In the northern part of Bukovina, as in the north of the Hotin county, due to the massive immigration of the Ruthenians from Galicia and Podolia, there was a gradual Ukrainianization of these territories and the ethnic and linguistic assimilation of the Romanian minority.