The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.
Prompt: To what extent, if any, did immigration to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900's change American economics, politics, and society? The newcomers helped transform American society and culture, demonstrating that diversity, as well as unity, is a source of national strength. When the immigrants have arrived in America they were treated differently. Not only to immigrants who have come to America but also slaves that were already in America or were being shipped from one place another that might have been out of the United States.
The United States had many economic problems after becoming a country, and as many other countries looked overseas for solutions. When America gained independence it was flooded with immigrants, urbanizing the cities and creating many changes. One change is that manufacturing became more common and soon it was making more money than agriculture. But Britain, Germany, and several other powers put a tax on imported manufactured goods in an attempt to preserve their own factories. So the US just started looking to lesser developed countries such as China to sell them.
The U.S changed during the 1880’s because of many immigrants coming from North Western Europe. Many of them weren 't poor. Stuff that made them want to leave their homes in Europe were, religions, natural disasters, famine, tyrants, and discrimination. People wanted to come to the U.S because of religious freedom, democracy, free land, jobs, family, and affordable transportation. The Chinese were encouraged to come to U.S to build railroads in 1860’s, in 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act was made and so was the Immigration act, which was tax on immigration, they denied people who looked like lunatics and looked like they needed government.
If you ask an American what it was like in the 1920’s I am sure you would get a completely different answer than if you asked an Immigrant. In School we are taught about the “Jazz Age.” We talk about the jazz music, movies, and flappers, but what people don't realize, is that there are two different ways people lived and acted during this time period. The “New Immigrants” who came from foreign countries such as Poland, Romania, and Italy did not have the same experiences as the Americans. These immigrants were treated differently because they spoke differently and had different religions and customs.
Beginning in the early 1800’s, until war was declared in World War I, millions of immigrants arrived in the United States from Russia, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Britain and Ireland. Their labor helped feed the American economy and aided the geographic expansion of the country. During this period under the Naturalization Act of 1790, the U.S. borders were open with no limits on immigration. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned the employment of Chinese workers, marking the first attempt to regulate foreign labor. With the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, thousands upon thousands of migrant workers from Mexico began arriving in the United States.
The 2016 US election will be an election that no person will forget, especially the fallout after the results for the president-elect were announced. Protests and riots breaking out denying the reality that Trump had won and many threats by some Pro-Trump saying inappropriate racial slurs and many telling non whites to ‘get out of their town/city or else.’ Throughout the years, the United States has been called the land of opportunity, leading to a high immigration rate in the late 1800s. Many foreigners came to the US feeling they would be accepted and allowed a new life. The reality being that they were received poorly and had mountiful acts of racism, both within the law and the populace, thrown upon them.
Eric Foner places the Gilded Age as having lasted between 1870 and 1890 . The period was marked by rapid industrialization as the country sought to rebuild after the devastation of war. It was also characterized by various social, economic, and political changes as the state adjusted itself to fit the realities of the modern world. The Civil War had resulted in the abolition of slavery, and there was an influx of immigrants into the country who saw it as a chance to gain a better life . There were many divisions as to what direction the country was headed.
Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to
In the nineteenth century, the United States was regarded for being the land of opportunity and shelter for immigrants. For many immigrants, the promise of not having to withstand the pressures of political, economic, and religious persecution in Europe helped boost thousands of people to come to the coast of Staten Island. Despite what the Americans conceived their roles towards immigrants to be, the perception of the immigrants to the real story of how they survived in America does not support the claim that America is a land of opportunity and shelter. The Russian Jews that emigrated had a different approach to the fulfillment of liberties promised by promotional books, such as Where to Emigrate and Why.
Many like the late diplomat George Kennan, claim that America can only support so many people and taking in increasing amounts of immigrants will only harm people who are already here. Kennan claims that like how water seeks its own level, so prosperity absorbs poverty and then gradually becomes more and more impoverished. While Kennan and other closed border advocates are correct in some aspects, they miss one major point about the culture and history of America: America was literally founded upon immigration. The ancestors of the founding fathers emigrated from Britain to America. The 19th and 20th centuries saw the rise of New York as a "melting pot" where dozens, if not hundreds of different cultures were combined into one.
The Great Migration occurred between 1915 and the year 1970, and it involved the migration of over 6 million African Americans from South cities to the North of the country. The Great Migration resulted into what can be described as a shift in massive demographic shifts across the United States. It is, in fact, important to understand that indeed between the year 1910 and the year 1930, cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Detroit experienced growth populations by about 40% (Lakova 28). Further, it is critical to understand that the number of African-Americans that were employed in industries doubled. Black Americans were trying to escape racism and Jim Crow laws that existed in the South.
Immigration to the United States has changed a lot since its establishment. The main, large influx of immigrants is characterized around the time when factory work was in high demand (specifically 1900-1930). Throughout this period there were about 18.7 million immigrants, which seems like a high volume, but when compared to contemporary immigration numbers of 20.9 million, its evident that progress hasn’t stopped. (Zhou) There are a few factors that make contemporary immigration different from this time of immigration. Previously, immigrants were seen as the poor, uneducated and unskilled “huddled masses” arriving on ships from Europe by the thousands trying to escape starvation in their home countries.
As a world leader, there are many questions about the level of restrictions when it comes to immigration. Since the basis of the U.S. is to give people freedom from their earlier restraints, I believe immigration restrictions should be fairly broad. People should give identification and reason for travel. Allowing immigration would help with unemployment rates. A wide variety of immigrants should be accepted because they can all provide something to the country, whether it is intelligence, material resources, or physical labor.
The Necessity of Immigration The United States is a country of necessary immigration. Unless a person is Native American, he is from a family of people who immigrated to this country, regardless of race or country of origin. It does not even matter how the family or person immigrated here: as a free man or woman, as a slave; legally or illegally; by ship, by foot, or by plane. We are all here because of what our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents decided to do for their families.
