Immigration and Cultural Shock in the Gilded Age

One of the most significant factors of immigration for America during the Gilded age was the creation of ethnic neighbourhoods. Since most of the immigrants were unskilled, they tended to find a job in growing factories located closer to the centre of the cities. The American culture was very different from the cultures in which the immigrants were raised, mainly because the Americans had noticeably different values from the rest of the world. Therefore, most of the immigrants experienced a culture shock. The language was a huge barrier to the majority of the immigrants too, because that was their main way of communication. Furthermore, the lack of language skills increased the impact of the culture shock that they were already experiencing.

Therefore, people from the same background tended to get together in particular neighbourhoods, and live in tenements in the same area to help each other by creating support groups. By joining the people with the same background as themselves, they felt safer toward the prejudice that was aimed at them in the society, particularly their workplace. This relates to the issue of racism toward the immigrants, that was very common at the time. As time passed, more immigrants with the same ethnicity entered those neighbourhoods to seek support. These certain neighbourhoods were known to be populated by people from a specific background and were called ”Ethnic Neighbourhoods”. Along with ethnic neighbourhoods, came ethnic newspapers, schools, and churches. These facilities allowed the newcomers to experience American freedoms while keeping their native culture and language. However, the more these small neighbourhoods got populated, the living conditions worsened.