Essay On 1880 And 1920s Immigration

1793 Words8 Pages

Between 1880 and 1920 the United States acted like as huge magnet for immigrants. Previous immigrants came from western and northern Europe; they were often well educated, spoke English, and had useful skills. However by 1880, the trend of immigrants changed; they came from southern and eastern cities, lacked education, and were poor. Many of the immigrants came to America in hopes of a better life. They were seeking escape from such things as famine, land shortage, and religious or political persecution. This wave of immigrants had an immense effect on the cities of America. I think some of the major impacts immigrants had on the cities they settled in was diversifying the culture as we knew, brought racism to the forefront, they were some …show more content…

This mean that women and children were both subjected to these terrible conditions; women and children were paid less than the men, but they still had to work the same twelve hour shift. A lot of what we hear about that immigrants went through, is illegal, there a child labor laws now, and laws that prohibit the amount of time that an employee can work. During the 1820 labor unions started to become more familiar, and by 1866 many employees started to band together to reduce their work hours from twelve hours a day to ten. “In 1866, the Nation Labor Union persuaded Congress to cut the workday down to today’s eight hour standard. (How did Labor Unions Start?, 2015)” I believe the impact of the harsh condition at work that many people relate to at this time, was that it started to bring people together. People gained that feeling of safety and confidence, knowing that they weren’t alone or invisible. In my opinion this was the start of Americans coming together as a nation, even though it might have taken a while to get there. Even though immigrants were treated differently at work than the other employees, they still made up a huge part of the work force. Businesses enjoyed the availability of employees,