Introduction
Throughout history, countless millions of people left their native land and moved to a
strange country where no one knows what kind of faith lies ahead for them. The heaviest
immigration worldwide took place from the early 1800’s to the Great Depression. Most of the immigrants came from Europe and half of them immigrated to the United States. Whatever
prompted the immigrants, they were brave, bold, and courageous men and women. They left
familiar communities for a new land and a new people.
The Four Waves of Immigrants
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. English, Dutch, and French
men and women settled it in its earliest days, the first decade of the seventeenth century. Groups from other nations followed soon. Through the years, the people and their descendants learned to live and work together, and to take pride in being Americans1. This spirit of cooperation and pride helped make the United States the huge, powerful, and wealthy nation it is today. It also helped the country and its people survive many challenges and hardships – including dangers in the wilderness, wars, social turmoil, and economic depression. The economic conditions in the United States and abroad and with the U.S. immigration policy have caused the flow of immigrant to fluctuate. The tally of annual arrivals created peaks and troughs with these reasons.
The four major peaks were referred to as the four waves of immigration2. These major periods of immigration shows how our nation fosters people from every corners of the world. It also exhibits the struggle the immigrants have to face just to be part of this great nation. The first wave of immigrants is mostly early colonists that came from England. Many other...
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v80 i5 p407. Summary Analysis by Lucinda Vargas and Beverly Fox Kellam of The
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Matloff of University of California at Davis.
11. The Use of SSI and Other Welfare Programs by Immigrants. Michael Fix, Jeffrey S.
Passel, and Wendy Zimmermann. The Urban Institute Washington, D.C.
The 18th Century was a time where most immigrants were of Irish, British, and German descent. From the 1890’s, through the next couple decade, Italians, and Jews would be the cause a new wave of immigration. Between 1900 and 1915, 3 million immigrants would take the journey, and travel to America. They would come through the famed “Ellis
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
The beginning of the immigration movement people came from all part of Europe looking for jobs and new opportunities over seas in the Americas. As immigrants, there were not many jobs that they could do, so many of them ended up in the mining and then later the manufacturing industries. The second industrial revolution played a big part in immigration for a few reasons. One, the invention of the steam boat. The steam boat made the travel much faster and a once long journey was made into a week. This trip was also much less costly for the immigrants and many travels back and forth between their countries and the United states (Immigration and American Experience). Two, the industrial revolution created many jobs in the United States for unskilled
During the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century the rise of immigration centered around two specific ethnic groups. Irish and German immigrants provided a large portion of immigrants that were entering the United States between the 1820’s and 1920’s. Both ethnic groups invested in making the journey to the United States for several reasons, however some immigrants were not given much choice. Economic opportunities attracted both ethnic groups into making the migration to the America, however others came because they felt dislocated or threatened in their own country. Choosing to come to America for these two groups was a similar decision but with their similarities came differences as well.
It has been said that immigration is as old as America itself. Immigration traces back as far as the 1500's when the West faced the coming of the Spanish. At that time, the Americas had been settled by the Indians, who were soon threatened by the first immigrants of America. These Spanish conquerors threatened to undermine the culture of the Indians as well as their way of life. Evidently, immigration started from the beginning of our country's time and has had an everlasting effect on America today.
Illegal immigration has many diverse effects on the United States economy. Some people argue that the negative outweigh the positive, but there is no doubt that immigrants do carry a critical role.
America’s first wave of immigration began in 1840 through 1860 and lead to many demographic changes. Population increased due to natural reproduction and immigration. Many immigrants relocated to America seeking economic growth and opportunity or to escape religious persecution and political tensions. The Irish and the Germans were the first immigrants to migrate to America during the first wave of immigration. Each group had different reasons for settlement, but both faced discrimination from the Nativists.
Immigration has always been a major part of America. In fact, without immigration the creation of America would not have been possible. The majority of immigrants came to America for religious freedom and economic opportunities. However, for the most part before the 1870’s most immigrants were Protestants from northern and western Europe. These immigrants often migrated to the United States as families and usually lived on farms with family or friends who had already migrated beforehand. A lot of immigrants came to America with a plan or goal in mind. They often had saved up money for the long immigration overseas, were skilled in a certain trade, or had already been educated at a high level. Sadly, this would not last. Immigration became so prominent in America between 1870 and 1900 that the foreign-born population of the United States had almost doubled. A lot of German and Irish Catholics had immigrated in the 1840’s and 1850’s, and more decided to immigrate after the Civil War. A portion of Americans were biased against Catholics. Thankfully, the Irish spoke English and the German Catholics reputation was improved because of their Protestant countrymen’s good reputation. However, their children often lacked any skill or education, but they were able to blend in quite well with the American society. More and more immigrants would migrate to the United States without any skill or education and on top of that they were usually poor. These immigrants were called “new” immigrants and they came from all over the world including Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, and Russia. However, you cannot blame immigrants for migrating to America. Many immigrants faced religious persecution in their home countries which pushed them away, otherwi...
Immigrants were first welcomed in the late 1700s. European explorers like Walter Raleigh, Lord Baltimore, Roger William, William Penn, Francis Drake, John Smith, and others explored to the New World for religious purposes and industrial growth. The first European settlers that settled in the late 1700s were the Pilgrims. After the Pilgrims first settled in Virginia, the expansion of immigrants started. Then in 1860 to 1915, America was growing with its industries, technology, and education. America’s growing empire attracted many people from Europe. The factors that attracted many people to the American cities where job opportunities with higher income, better education, and factory production growth. As the population grew in the American
The United States was in a period of fast industrialization and urbanization in the years 1880 to 1920. The United States to in over 20 million people. The vast majority of those coming to the United States originated from Europe, specifically the central, southern and eastern areas. During the time period 1900 to 1910 approximately 600,000 immigrants had arrived from Italy, but come 1920 in excess of 4 million Italians had been accepted into the United States. During this time period a little over 2 million Jews originating from eastern Europe in and attempt to flee persecution.
The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920. Many people immigrated to America for
The early 1900s was a period of mass immigration for the United States. At the turn of the 20th century religious preferences and political persecution were major reasons behind immigration. Many Jews came to America in search of freedom. People of other religious backgrounds also came because the United States was composed of a diverse group of people with different religious preferences. The immigrants did not feel like outcasts in America. Political persecution in Russia forced many of its citizens to emigrate. Most chose to come to America because the country was culturally diverse and they could feel safe there. Economic problems at this time also drove people to America. Many countries around the world were just starting to develop so they were poor and lacked jobs. Their citizens were in desperate need of money; so many fathers immigrated to America in search of a job to support their family with. This was a common occurrence among Asian immigrants. Only later did their families join them through new laws and quotas in the United States immigration policy. However, this soon led to an enormous number of immigrants so the policy was revised to lower quotas and accept more skilled people and less family members.
The first mass wave of immigration to the United Sates started in 1820. The people that came to the United States were from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bohemia, Ireland, and a small number of Chinese. Roughly fifteen million people emigrated from 1820 to 1880. There were three main causes for the mass immigration. There was the Revolutions in Europe, mainly in Germany. Then there was the 1848 California Gold Rush. The third reason for this immigration was the end of the Mexican-American War. The two main groups that immigrated to the United States were Germans and the Irish, as a result of the Revolutions in Europe.
The spark in the number of immigrants entering the United States began in the late nineteen sixties to the early nineteen seventies. People came to the United States because the United Farm Workers movement got jobs to provided higher salaries, improved working conditions, health benefits, minimizing segregation within the work environment, retirement plans, and even formed a credit union specifically for farm workers and immigrants. These were all factors which contributed to the increase in immigrants in the United States. (As life began to improve for immigrants within the United States, others thought the same could happen to them). Many immigrants thought of this as an opportunity to form a new and improved lifestyle. To this day the number of immigrants continue to grow, and their lives increasingly improve.
Immigration to America began when Christopher Columbus discovered the new land now called the American continent. Immigration increased in the 17th century when people came from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the new land. There were many colonies, such as the British and Dutch. When people came they go to their people and find jobs as farmers. The first immigrants were in the east coast around 1607 to 1775 after the number of immigrants increased. In 1790 - 1850 there were few immigrants who came to America, but in 1850 to 1930 the number of immigrations increased (Dolan 4).