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The effects of immigration in the 1800s
The effects of immigration in the 1800s
The effects of immigration in the 1800s
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In 1808, the United States banned the importation of slaves. In 1853, the US Customs and Border Patrol Agency was established In 1855, an immigration landing depot opened at Castle Garden. Before it's close in 1890, 34 million people entered the United States through Castle Garden.
When immigrants come to America, they either come because of a “push” or a “pull.” During the Gilded Age, most them came because of “pull factors.” Pull factors are factors that draw someone to something; the immigrants were drawn to America because of our booming economy. What many immigrants did not know, was that below the rich and booming economy was immense poverty and lack of jobs to working class citizens. They see people living the “American Dream” from a far, but when they finally come to America, they end up in the same situation that most of the other immigrants did; living in poverty.
Many people migrated west for many reasons during the 1800's. Some of these reasons were government sponsored and others were not. Some examples of government sponsored reasons include the Homestead Acts, Mexican War, and the Gadsden Purchase. Some nongovernment sponsored reasons include the Gold Rush, and the Mormons. The Homestead Acts was one of the first reasons for westward expansion.
From 1825 until 1850, America went through a memorable period in its history. Before this time, this new nation established itself as a persevering and powerful country as it proved in the war of 1812. From 1825 - 1850, The United States again demonstrated its power and perseverance by expanded into the West to control and govern the country with a spirit of courage. This made the country bigger and stronger through its most difficult and trying times during the process of expanding and provided for the country's future success. This was later called, the Manifest Destiny.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, laborers struggled for better treatment, seeking higher wages, shorter hours, better conditions, and most importantly, the right to unionize. In the fight for unionization, workers struggled to overcome not only employer resistance, but internal disputes and conflicts. Amongst these conflicts were divisions between native born workers and foreign born workers and divisions between “new” immigrants and “old” immigrants. “New” immigrants were typically Southern or Eastern Europeans and included many from Hungary, Italy, and Slavic countries. “Old” immigrants typically included English-speaking foreigners from Ireland and Britain, but they also included immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia.
Before the Civil War, Congress reserved the Great Plains for Indians. However, in the era of steel plows, building up the continent and the speedy geographic and economic development in the United States enabled by the growth of railroads, policy makers took over power of the whole region. Indians living in reservations were forced to flee as they faced violence and confused federal policies. In the late 1800s Americans developed various laws and procedures in order to outline the relationship between the Indians and the Federal Government.
The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.
Having survived the atrocities of World War I, the population of the United States embarked on a newer never before experienced pathway in the 1920s. With over 100 million people now living in the United States, the numbers of immigrants coming into the country was again on the rise (Pop Culture:1920, 2015). The number of immigrants frightened the Americans and sent them into a state of anti-immigrant hysteria called nativism (Tindall & Shi, 2013). Although many citizens conveniently disregarded that their ancestry dated from earlier immigration, the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 was passed by Congress in 1921 to limit and restrict the number of immigrants allowed annually into the United States (Tindall & Shi, 2013). The Emergency Immigration Act was passed because many population groups believed the newer groups of immigrants were foreign radicals
During the Gilded Age, industrialization and urbanization flourished in the United States. This occurred because of the movement of Americans from the East to the West, and also from the massive amount of “new immigrants” from eastern Europe and Asia, into cities. Americans disliked this influx of immigrants because it created competition for jobs for Americans “who deserve the job”. This feeling of Nativism caused many immigrants like the Chinese to face persecution and unfair treatment through laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese workers from entering the United States. Due to the overabundance of people who wanted to work in factories, business and factory owners were not concerned with the availability of
Americans had rarely accepted outsiders as equals, and that was the case with immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840s to the 1920s. A time in America where immigrants were not considered inferior to native white Americans did not exist. The hatred of anything non-American, especially with the coming of World War I in 1914, would only cause more Americans to despise immigrants. Part of this was rooted simply in racism, which existed towards groups other than African Americans, but much of it was simply that Americans considered themselves the chosen people while everyone else was below them. Thus, despite immigrants being accepted into America, those immigrants were still treated far worse than white citizens between the 1840s and 1920s, for the prejudice against them was obvious even in the laws created.
Today, immigration is one of the most controversial and discussed topics in America. The subject of immigration has had a long and confusing history that takes a lifetime of education to fully comprehend. Within the United States, there are over 300 years of legislation that has passed to maintain migration into the States. When looking at immigration there are three main facets that are interconnected with each other, which are law, demographics, and economics. Immigration has drastically changed since the eighteenth and nineteenth century compared to what it is today in the twenty first century.
In 1920s, American Society was in in a stage of radicalism. Coming after the ended of World War I, society took all the blame on foreigners and immigrants. Minority group and immigrant was targeted to committing crimes and law did not protect their rights. Incidents and bias in Justice system have also caught the awareness of labor organizations. Congress sparked off a great debate on whether immigrants should be reduce and limited.
The Gilded Age, occurring from roughly 1877 to 1896, was an era of political corruption and exploitation of immigrant labor, masked by rapid industrialization and economic growth. The US’s industrial transformation caused a larger desire for industrial and factory workers, eventually leading to a substantial amount of immigration during the Gilded Age. Socially, the Gilded Age prompted an abundance of industrial jobs in US cities and the desire for labor workers, owing to an emergence of immigration. Politically, urban growth led to politics holding more importance, as well as the rise of bribery and exploitation through political machines. And Economically, the Gilded Age witnessed the birth of a modern industrial economy along with new
Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to
“Old immigrants” came to America or “New world” to have better work and life. Most of the “old immigrants” brought thousands of people from german and Irish or Northern or Western Europe to America. But during the Gilded Age, new and more immigrants were coming to the New world. That means there was a tremendous increase in the volume of immigrants, in their original location, and in the beginning of anti-immigration legislation. It also means that the U.S population will expand because of the immigrants moving into America.
