Nancy Forener Thesis

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

Globally, the United States has been known as "a nation of immigrants" almost from its inception. Beginning in the 1600s with English Puritans and continuing today, America is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration was the major source of U.S. population growth. Looking over our 200+ years we find that to clearly be true, with approximately 1 million immigrants coming to America during the 17th and 18th century. Almost 3 million arrived during the 1860s, and another 3 million in the 1870s. In the next four decades, the number of immigrants rose to over 25 million people, most from various European nations, most arriving in New York or one of the Eastern seaports (Damon, 1981). Despite the politicization, as of 2006, the United States actually was the number one country globally to accept legal immigrants into the country, with a current immigrant population of almost 40 million (Terrazas and Batalova, 2009). In fact, the peak of immigration was 1907, when over 1.2 million Europeans entered the country beginning a push towards legislation limiting immigration in the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 and the 1921 Congressional Quota Act. These immigrants came for two sociological reasons: the push factor (wars, famine, persecution and overpopulation) and the pull factors (jobs and the promise of freedom). Most came by ship, and a passage often cost the equivalent of an entire life's savings causing many

The United State of America has been a place of opportunities where one can easily achieve his or her dreams. Critiques have shown that even a few who are brought up from a poor family have to turn out becoming great people on earth. It is a country that was built by immigrants. It is well known that “America's first European settlers were America's first immigrants. These first citizens were welcome by Native Americans, and they were seen as a threat. By the 19th century, the pattern had been repeated many times, with each new wave of immigrants encountering mixed reactions from already established Americans.” Turner, Laura Leddy. "Challenges Faced by Immigrants in the 19th Century." Synonym. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2017. After the British took over the land from the Native American and started to develop the land, there were other European countries who also migrated to seek greener pastures. They were not accepted easily but had to be screened in order for them to be welcome into the system. The early settlers were so threatened after they were able to get rid of the natives of the land “The German, Irish and Italian immigrants who arrived in America during the 1800s often faced prejudice and mistrust. Many had to overcome language barriers. Others discovered that the challenges they had fled from, such as poverty or religious persecution, were to be encountered in America as well. A mass migration of Germans began in the mid-1830s and continued into the 1880s when

Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.

In the late 1800s , America became the land of new opportunities and new beginnings and New York City became the first landmark for immigrants. New York City was home to Ellis Island, the area in which migrants were to be handed for freedom to enter the nation. Living in New York City gave work and availability to ports. In time the city gave the chance to outsider's to construct groups with individuals from their nation , they were classified as new and old settlers. Old outsiders included Germans, Irish and, English. The new outsiders incorporated those from Italy, Russia, Poland and Austria-Hungary. In 1875, the New York City populace was a little 1 million individuals contrasted with the 3,5 million it held when the new century

As a larger number of immigrants began to move to the United States from eastern and southern Europe, cities began to increase. Due to these patterns of global migration, between 1870 and 1900, cities increased by at least eleven million people from these immigrants (p.507). While the idea of a growing city benefits big businesses in hiring low-waged workers, this opportunity for work in large industries opened the flood-gates for multiple waves of immigrants. The first wave, those known as the skilled workers “…criticized the newcomers. One Irish worker complained, ‘There should be a law…to keep all the Italians from comin’ in and takin’ the bread out of the mouth of honest people’” (American

Immigration allowed for lots of communities which still exist today of the same ethnicity. for example the major one in boston

The United States is made up of two different types of immigrants: those who are born on U.S. soil and those who travel to settle here. However, despite whether one is born in the United States or not for most their lineage runs back to other countries. It is evident that a majority of the U.S. first immigration wave was around the late 1800’s to the 1920’s. This was a time in which many immigrants where leaving their countries due to different reasons and finding prosperity in the U.S. In the book 97 Orchards: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement (97 Orchard) by Jane Ziegelman she explores and paints the history of five different immigrant families. The book goes into great detail sharing stories of daily

The influx of immigrants created the idea of Nativism, the belief that native born Americans are superior to immigrants. To this day there are nativists that still dislike immigrants especially when our economy is doing bad because they feel that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. A time when African Americans moved from the north to south was known as the Great Migration. During this time period, African Americans would move into big cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and many more. To this day we still have a great majority of African Americans living in these big cities. As more time went on the amount of immigrants to America kept growing to the point where the government created immigration reforms. The immigration reforms were attempts to fix whats wrong with immigration policies. As of right now we are still working on immigration reforms including the rules we have to follow and the limitations to the different foreigners that we can let into the U.S. As of this day immigration reforms are a big debate within the

New York City is the largest and one of the oldest cities in the United States, having been 'rediscovered' by Henry Hudson in 1609 while working for the Dutch East Indies Company. New Amsterdam, as it was then known, was settled in 1614 by Dutch fur traders and became the most important port in America. (Reed, 2011) The two rivers flowing on each side of Manhattan grant easy access to the ocean, and Henry Hudson remarked that the harbor was the best natural harbor he had ever seen in the world. For hundreds of years the city has been at the epicenter of world trade, and immigration to the new world. Millions of immigrants have filled the streets of New York, from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and elsewhere.

        Ever since the United States was founded, immigrants have been arriving on its soil.  The first white inhabitants of the U.S. were immigrants from Europe.  They came for many reasons, such as religion and opportunity.  As the country grew and became more prosperous, it became more enticing to foreigners looking for opportunity.  This continued into the 20th century and finally during the 1920’s, the United States began to restrict immigrants from coming to their country, mostly for cultural and economic reasons.  Even the immigrants that were allowed in during the 20’s faced many hardships such as religious persecution, racism, and xenia phobia.  One of the major groups of immigrants during that

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.

After World War One, Europe and Asia were in chaos. Many European people were without a home, a job and way of life. Desperate, hundreds of thousands immigrated to more stable and industrialized nations such as the United States of America. From 1915 to 1919, an average of over two-hundred thirty-four thousand immigrants per year came to the United States of America (Cohn 2). A large number of these immigrants came from Europe and were processed at Ellis Island in New York City. Forty percent of all Americans can trace their heritage to Ellis Island (United States Department of the Interior). Ellis Island was so overcrowded with people, the government hurriedly built dormitories, kitchens, and hospitals (United States Department of the Interior). When these people came, they arrived in over-crowded boats from unclean places. Due to widespread disease in the boats, there were many burials at sea. One of these burials quite ironically, was my great-uncle who was four-years-old. Upon arrival, from Italy, my great-aunt was buried. When the immigrants arrived, government

The United States as a whole is seen as the land of opportunity. New York is a major central for diversity and because of that many people from different cultural atmospheres have brought their families and dreams to New York City. Although Immigration patters throughout the last 200 years have varied, New York has consistently seen people from around the world move to the city and call it home. From the earliest points in our history as a nation, New York has been a center for trade and economic growth. New York is known world wide as a cultural melting pot. While other states have had immigration surges, none have compared to the diversity and sheer number of immigrants that have made their way to the City. This paper will focus on

Ellis Island, New York, reopened for business in 1990, but now the customers are tourists, not immigrants. This spot, which lies in New York Harbor, was the first American soil seen or touched by many of the nation’s immigrants. Though other places also served as ports of entry for foreigners, none has the symbolic power of Ellis Island. Between its opening in 1892 and its closing in 1954, over 20 million people, about two-thirds of all immigrants, were detained there before taking up their new lives in the United States. Ellis Island processed over 2000 newcomers a day when immigration was at its peak between 1900 and 1920.