American Immigration 19th Century

Immigration in the first years of the twentieth century had a profound impact on American society, culture and the political landscape. The effect of this immigration helped to determine the United States global persona for the entire century. As larger groups of Western Europeans immigrated to the United States, in the first twenty years, they brought with them, their culture, traditions, and European (old world) mode of thought. When they became vastly intertwined within the culture of the factory towns and metropolitan cities their influence can be seen and felt, their influence on politics and laws are also observed. As we will analyze, the change to the United States was not dramatic, it happened over time, becoming clearly visible

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, transportation across the ocean was increasingly becoming cheaper and easier, thus allowing for less fortunate Europeans to come to the United States as new immigrants. In the years between 1881 and 1920 in excess of 23 million immigrants coming from all corners of the world, however, predominantly Europe entered the United States. Prior to 1890 the vast majority of immigrants originated from northern and western Europe. In the year after 1890, the larger share came from southern and eastern Europe. The prohibitive immigration laws of the United States ensured that those attempting to emigrate from Asia, kept their numbers low to the bare

The Congress in 1921 chose pass a new immigration law which puts caps or ceilings on the total number of immigrants that the United States would accept from any given country. A formula was devised which in essence was used to control the flow of immigration from the eastern and southern parts of Europe. Effectively, this law allowed for most immigrants to the United States to originate primarily from the western and northern areas of European nations. The restricting of immigration into the United States by the advent of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The years of the Depression saw more people emigrate from the United States than those that immigrated. About one half million fresh immigrants arrived in the United States between 1931 and 1940. The Federal government decided to make the immigration laws less prohibitive when the United States entered World War II towards the end of 1941. In particular, the United States wartime ally China was a beneficiary of this easing of the rules.

2. Where did the most immigrants to the United States originate