The United States of America is a nation built off immigration. Many people left their home countries and came to America in search of a better life. Many of these immigrants endured hardships after they arrived in the United States. There are countless reasons why people immigrated to the United States. For example, many Irish came to America because England was excessively taxing Ireland, and taxing them high amounts. According to Document 2, source: June Namias, First Generation: In the words of Twentieth-Century American Immigrants, “We had to pay every cent we possibly could produce to taxes.” In addition to that, there was a potato famine in Ireland, causing many to starve and die because potatoes are the main part of their diet. England showed no remorse, and did not help the Irish one bit, so many decided to pursue a better life in America. Moreover, another reason that caused people to immigrate to the U.S. is the poor working and paying conditions in their home countries. “In those days [1967], a worker in Greece made about five dollars a day, when a worker's pay in the United States was about 30 dollars a day.” Besides the fact many Greeks lived in poverty, there was also limited opportunities for education, which also was a push factor for immigrating to …show more content…
America. Furthermore, there was bad pay and education because of the financial crisis going on in Greece. Once arrived in the U.S., these new immigrants faced many hardships and misfortunes.
As an example, the immigrants had terrible living conditions, almost as bad as the ones faced in their home countries. As shown on the photograph in Document 4, (source: Lewis W. Hine, November 1912, Library of Congress), the tenements were extremely overcrowded and filthy. The tenements were located in the ghettos, which was a neighborhood where people with a similar social background lived together. These small tenements usually housed around 10-12 people. To go into further detail, diseases were easily spread amongst the residents living in the tenements because of the overcrowding, and poor
ventilation. Immigrants were faced with an innumerable amount of difficulties once arrived in America. For instance, immigrants faced immensely poor and dangerous working conditions. As indicated in Document 6, photograph of New York Garment Workers 1913, (source: Historical Atlas of the United States, National Geographic Society, 1988), the immigrants were protesting the amount of hours in their workday, as shown on several of the signs in the picture that said “We want 8 hours of work.” At the time, there were no labor laws, so these immigrants would work for 16+ hours a day! Additionally, even young children would work at these factories, from 10 to 16 hours a day, because not all employers followed the guidelines, although 10 hours is still a lot of time for a child to be working. Furthermore, it was incredibly dangerous to work in the factories, as many people, including children, were injured, lost limbs, and some even were killed by the machines. Also, the people working in the factory often developed many respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, because of constantly inhaling dust particles and tiny pieces of fabric. Practically all of the newly arrived immigrants faced difficulties in the United States. These immigrants left their home countries and everything behind to pursue a better life in the land of opportunity. However, as said by many immigrants, “I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out 3 things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them.”
Immigrants come to America to seek a better life and receive a better education. America
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 United States’ government instilled a closed door policy with the creation of many immigration laws in an effort to make America a melting pot of similar ethnicities. However, the prejudice of American society that was enforced by immigration policy forced immigrants to form their own communities for the purpose of survival and protection, turning America into a mosaic of different cultures. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and Naturalization Act of 1870 both created a false image of acceptance for immigrants while simultaneously restricting immigration. The United States’ government only began clearly restricting immigration with the Page Act of 1875 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
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
For many years, America has had a misconception of immigrants. Most Americans think them to be taking up space, money, and jobs, but that’s not it. U.S. born citizens have the wrong impression of immigrants, which technically has them judging themselves because all U.S. born citizens have a family background with at least one immigrant that came to the U.S., as stated in “Religious Issues in American Immigration,” “All Americans are immigrants” (Granquist). Even U.S. born citizens have a trace of immigration in their family history leaving them with no room to judge others. Americans have common misconceptions of a lot of things and immigration happens to be one of them. However, that is not to say that it is not a fixable problem. Through the past years of politics and reforms in the U.S, we have begun to fix prejudice towards immigrants, as well as start to understand why it is occurring. America has made improvements in having equality in culture, religion, education, and language which made it a better environment for the immigrants. America managed to throw out the hardships and stereotypes of immigrants and realize how they are benefitting. After reforms were put in place to increase equality and decrease prejudice, America benefited socially and economically. Since immigrants increased the supply demand, they created more jobs. This in turn brought a rise of the economy. America made some of the most appropriate changes in order to benefit others as well as themselves. Because of the advanced reforms in America and the determination for no prejudice towards immigrants, the environment became better and America started to benefit.
Immigration to America is often a decision made in order to discover a better life for a family or individual. America’s founding ideals are usually what compel foreigners to move to the US. The stories of America being the “Land of Opportunity” have continued to persuade people to immigrate. Although immigration in the 20th century is much different from recent immigration, the underlying reasons for moving to the US are usually quite similar.
Immigration has been a topic that has caused multiple discussions on why people migrate from one country to another, also how it affects both the migraters and the lands they go. Immigration is the movement from one location to another to live there permanently. This topic has been usually been associated with sociology to better explain how it affects people, cultures and societies. Sociology has three forms of thinking that are used to describe and analyze this topic. There are three forms of thinking that are used to tell and describe immigration to society; structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict theory. Each of these theories uses different forms of thinking and rationality to describe and explain socio topics.
Until the 1860s, the early immigrants not only wanted to come to America, but they also meticulously planned to come. These immigrants known as the “Old Immigrants” immigrated to America from many countries in Northern and Western Europe, known as, Sweden, Norway, Scandinavia, Wales and Ireland. Some of them traveled to Canada, but most of them came to the U.S. seeking freedom they didn’t get in their own countries. Ireland had also recently suffered through a potato famine, where the citizens were left poor and starving. Most settled in New York City and other large cities, where they worked in factories and other low-paying jobs. The immigrants caused a great increase in population in these areas. The “Old Immigrants” tried not to cluster themselves with others of their own nationality. They would mostly try to fit in with Americans as best as they could. Many of them had a plan to come to America, so they saved their money and resources before they arrived so they could have a chance at a better life. On the other hand, another group of immigrants began to arrive
The United States has been shaped by immigration since the first new arrivals arrived over 400 years ago. Immigration has been a powerful force that is responsible for how the United Sates has become a powerful force they are today, it has contributed a lot to the many social, political and economic processes that have formed the United States as a nation.
Immigration is what has made America what it is today. America expresses concerns of the growing immigrant population, but those concerns vary and are expressed with intensity by the different segments of the population. There is immigrants all over the world seeking for a better future. Some of these countries where these immigrants come from are from Mexico, Canada, and china. Most of the immigrants here in America are Mexican. They are known to come with big groups, such as their families. It is easy to get from Mexico to the U.S because of the border, they are parallel to each other which makes it equal to seek a new life in
Many immigrants moved into the streets of New York and Chicago in search for tenement buildings. The life in these buildings were harsh and full of diseases and sickness. Immigrants in these building had to rent and share a room with another 13 adults. The conditions in these buildings were extreme, the lack of sanitation and housing made an impact on every person living in these small and clustered rooms. The children in these tenement buildings were exposed to extreme famine, with the unsanitary food and unhealthy living condition children's life span was up to 6 years.
Throughout the past centuries, immigration has had many positive and negative impacts on our country and society. Law and order have been the founding cornerstone of our democracy, and the mandate of the U.S. Constitution is for Congress to do the work of the people and that of the nation. Immigration has continuously been a passionate debate within our society. This particular topic will always be a sensitive subject due to Americans personal beliefs and morals.
“What makes someone American isn 't just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and faith in the idea that anyone form anywhere can write the next chapter of our story” –Barack Obama. Immigration is flawed in the United Sates. Most North Americans have a feeling of hate towards immigrants from all over the world, because they think that immigrants are taking their jobs. The fact is that immigrants actually play a huge role in the economy and development of a country. The whole United States is built on immigrants. Throughout American history, millions of people around the world have left their home countries for a chance to start a new life in the U.S and they continue to emigrate. There are some theories as to why people
“America was built by immigrants.” From Plymouth Rock in the 17th century to Ellis Island in the 20th century, people from every corner of the earth have come to America. Immigrants left their home countries for various reasons. Some were fleeing religious persecution and political turmoil. Most, however, came for economic reasons and were part of extensive migratory systems that responded to changing demands in labor markets. The American economy needed both skilled and unskilled workers through much of the 19th century. But after the 1880’s the demand was almost exclusively for unskilled workers to fill the growing number of factories in the American Northeast.
Immigration to the united states started in the 7th century, with the first arrivals of European settlers. Once immigration arrive in a new country, they start the long and difficult process of settlement and integration. People emigrate from one country to another for variety reasons. some are forced to move, due to conflict or to escape persecution prejudices, while other may voluntarily emigrate. What makes someone American is not just blood or birth but allegiances to our founding principles and faith in the idea that anyone from anywhere can write the next chapter of our story.