Between the late 1870’s and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, American’s Industrial Revolution fueled the most rigorous period of immigration in American history. Many millions of people, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe came to America. Most were poor, didn’t speak English and almost all were strangers to America to society and culture. These were the “New Immigrants”, and they swelled to existing American cities, while also forming new cities in the process. The forces of immigration and urbanization would combine with industrialization to transform a once rural and agrarian nation into its modern form.
Before the time of industrialization, what is now called the
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Although they were unskilled, I type of jobs they would have them do were once that didn’t require little to no knowledge. Because these families were so poor, everyone had to work. Since there were no child labor laws, children were sent to work in coal mines, and silk mills. Women also had to work- mostly in textiles factories or as seamstresses ( “Becoming
American: An Ethnic History”).
This was one of the reasons why the “old immigrants” disliked the “new immigrant”. These self proclaimed “Americans” resented the “newcomers” mostly because they were different from them and it threatened their idealist, perfect society. These new people dressed differently, ate different foods, had different religious beliefs, spoke different languages, and just plain looked different. Just as with the Native Americans, they wanted to change anything that wasn’t “American”.
Many “new immigrants” lived in tenements when they first came here. Tenements were five to six story buildings with twenty or more families. Between the years of the 1840’s the population of New York increased 60 percent ( “The Tenements as History and Housing”), so this type of housing was essential in to the lives of these immigrants. This type of housing was very unhealthy to live in however. The Council of Hygiene and Public Health reported, “It’s only
With little money in their pockets and no idea of where they might stay, the search for jobs was desperate. However having thousands of immigrants arriving in NYC around the same time caused job opportunities to be limited. With no money, many were left homeless with no place to go but the streets of New York. Having people living on the streets caused overpopulation of the city and left the city dirty and dismantled. Along with the fall of the city the crime rate began to increase dramaticlly due to immigrants going to desperate measures to make money. When an immigrant was lucky enough to find a job they faced the challenge of language barrier, poor working conditions and low wages. These low wages could hardly afford to feed their families let alone provide a decent shelter. This created what would be known as the slums of New York City. The city was being filled with large apartment buildings that were run down and overpopulated with immigrants. Over population began creating conflicts between different ethnic groups throughout New York City. Eventually leading to the divison of the city into sections based on common ethnic backrounds. Nativism however would be a common problem as it increased because of hatred towards immigrants over such issues including the loss of opportunities for already settled natives to the area. To avoid this hatred many immigrants chose to take on other names or alter their own last name. Due to many families
An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic
The United States of America is the best place for immigration. The history proved that the United States was the dream land, the place of chances. That started when Europeans escaped form their countries because there were no jobs and no safe places to live. America became the best choice for people who were looking for political asylum, jobs, or freedom, but after a few generations something changed the Americans look to immigrants as strangers and they forgot where they are from because America is multicultural place and immigration movement should be understandable, but this is not the case. Governments should develop good laws for immigrants by giving rights to immigrants to stay in America, to protect them, and to allow people who
The life of living as a poor settler or an immigrant was a problem in the urban life. Most of the immigrants faced poverty that needs to be secured with food, shelter, healthcare, and money. For example, if there were no food for the immigrants to eat, they will starve to death. A shelter was one of the most important things they need because it keeps them securities from harm and it is a cozy place for them to sleep. Another source they need was health care because without medical attention most of them had the disease. The disease like cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid came from bad hygiene which was preventing bad sanitation. The health factor was
When you have substantial amounts of people subsiding in a general region you will always have those who agree with certain policies and those you disagree. In the case of the US immigration policy, there was a considerable amount of people who had strong opinions on America's way of running their immigration system. Many interviews, articles, speeches, and cartoons were created to show the harsh insensitivity they felt was being portrayed in immigration. A Senator of New York named Meyer Jacobstein made several thought-provoking claims towards the policy. He started with a point against the committee, “ One of the purposes in shifting to the 1890 census is to reduce the number of undesirables and defectives in our institutions. In fact,
I believe that the ability to understand the world around you can tremendously influence a person. I have had the honors to experience many situations that broadened my perspectives in life. When I immigrated to America in 2006, I had no clue how greatly my education will be affected. Because my parents did not know any English, I had to accomplish all the work by myself. I understood their struggles of trying to put dinner on the table so I tried not to complain. They had given up their old life in Vietnam to give me a better education and opportunities, I did not want their effort to go in vain. Through my whole academic career, I pushed myself to do everything to my fullest potential because I have been given the opportunity that many other
One of the most defining traits for the United States of America is that the nation is one made up of immigrants, it is a basic building block that can not be overlooked, nor should it. That being said, it is important to countless citizens to be open when it comes to immigration, while keeping the country hospitable to its citizens for generations to come. However, this attitude to immigration is a fairly recent phenomenon in American history, especially in regards to immigrants coming in from non-Western European countries. With the introduction of the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) came about the changes to immigration policy that would forever change the face of the nation and create the diversity that has become a point of pride. The sentiment is not felt nationwide, however, as the immigration patterns brought about with these two acts has brought hostility as well, especially from those who feel that immigration is a threat to the country as a whole, specifically illegal immigration. Immigration, and its illegal counterpart, is an issue that defines this period in American history, and while it did not necessary start off targeting Mexican and Latino immigrants, it has very much been immortalized within the communities and become the face of immigrants to the nation as a whole.
People come to America in search of many things: freedom, opportunity, or wealth. Coming to America has its downsides. Immigrants are often expected to conform to the dominant culture and give up their own. This was the case for early German immigrants; but along with being purged of their own culture, they contributed to American culture.
Prior to 1882, there were not any formal acts that controlled immigration. The Act of 1875 merely prohibited the importation of women for purposes of prostitution and the immigration of aliens "who are undergoing conviction in their own country for felonious crimes, other than political..." The Act of 1882 levied a head tax of fifty cents "for every passenger not a citizen of the United States," and forbade the landing of convicts, lunatics, idiots, or of "any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge."
America as a nation is made up of immigrants from all over the world ranging from all across Europe to China. Many immigrants faced discrimination and had to completely conform to this new world they came to. Oscar Handlin and Mark Wyman have very different views on immigration in the late nineteenth century. Handlin’s view on immigration included how immigrants were alienated from this new world known as America and after being partially Americanized and their old homelands did not recognize them anymore as citizens. Wyman’s views were different from Handlin’s views because he thought that immigrants were only in America for such a short time because they came for opportunity. Wyman states that immigrants were not uprooted from the homelands because they still practiced their beliefs and did not see America as their final destination. Both authors make very excellent points but Handlin makes better points by realizing most immigrants did lose their dignity and lost many of their traditions of their homelands by becoming Americanized, immigrants were being uprooted in the late nineteenth century.
The relationship between immigration, urbanization, and industrialization became dominantly significant by the launch of the Progressive Era between the years 1890 and 1920. Immigration increased at a staggering rate in which millions of immigrants from Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Asia sough economic opportunities. The United States, in the era, experienced large portions of its lands altered into massive cities with expanding industrial infrastructures. Despite these factors having greatly transformed American life, the nation’s inhabitants have only begun to realize the consequences for such an inevitable step of progress.
Most Americans place their pride in being apart of a country where a man can start at the bottom and work his way to the top. We also stress the fact that we are “all created equal” with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (Jefferson 45) During the early 1900s white Americans picked and chose who they saw fit to live in America and become an American. “Those that separate the desirable from the undesirable citizen or neighbor are individual rather than race.”
As Immigrants would come through Ellis Island and other places with a gleaming amount of hope, they would experience something totally different on the other side. Inside the US was this feeling of Anglo-Saxon superiority and therefore immigration was frowned upon in may areas. An immigration officer from this time period cited “early economic opportunity came to an end” as one of the major things that affected immigrant life. They [immigrants] were left to find day jobs working at the first opportunity that presented itself and then return to the tenement. Out of this pattern grew an extreme feeling of isolation. Immigrants lived in their own communities, socialized with their own, and slept with their own. Nativist feelings from the american-born community were real and present and ultimately the belief was to sleep, eat, and work for someone else and be content.
The “New Immigrants,” were mostly non-protestant which set them apart from most of America’s population. (Maurer, 02/06/17) As the Civil war came to an end Americans felt that “Nativism” was key for being an American. Even though they were people if they were not from our country they were going to infringe on our religious ways. We did not see till later that religious diversity is natural and other have the right to believe what they feel is right if it coincides with the law. Americans did not want to accept their beliefs because they felt due to the lack of education that the immigrants had they were not “civil” enough for their beliefs to
Immigration to the United States has been happening since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1492. America is one of the most diverse nations in the world, attracting people from every corner of the globe in hopes of a better way of life. America in the past has relied on migrant workers to balance the economies growth when internal resources have been exhausted; moreover, the agriculture business has depended on the seasonal employment of migrant workers from Mexico to meet the labor demand. Programs have been created in the past granting work contracts for the flood of Mexican labor into the United States, and new work programs are being analyzed to suffice the needs of