Pull Factors Of Immigrants During The Gilded Age

The Spurious Era

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States saw rapid industrialization and population growth. All over the world, people longed for wealth and happiness just like America saw, so many of them decided to take risks and come to America. But once they got here they found that it was not so great after all. This period was later termed as “The Gilded Age.” I completely agree with the name because of the false image that the immigrants were receiving, the false sense of wealth that middle-class citizens felt, and the fierce robber barons of the economy.

When immigrants come to America, they either come because of a “push” or a “pull.” During the Gilded Age, most them came because of “pull factors.” Pull factors are factors that draw someone to something; the immigrants were drawn to America because of our booming economy. What many immigrants did not know, was that below the rich and booming economy was immense poverty and lack of jobs to working class citizens. They see people living the “American Dream” from a far, but when they finally come to America, they end up in the same situation that most of the other immigrants did; living in poverty.

This middle class would have some of the luxuries of the upper class and would be way better off than the working class, but would still have to manage their money wisely. Some of these luxuries were authentic; however, many were just a cheaper version that was mass produced to look like it costs one hundred dollars, when in turn it only costs ten. These middle-class citizens would buy these things to make themselves look like the upper class, which wanted to be better than everyone else and have nicer things than everyone else. In this case, it was good that these things had a false side to them, but in other cases it can be good or bad depending on your side in things; like the