Before 1880, when Northern and Western Europeans immigrated to the United States, there weren’t many issues because of the characteristics that these “old” immigrants shared with Americans. During a time period called the Gilded Age, Southern and Eastern Europeans came to the United States due to push factors (war, famine, and persecution) and pull factors (job opportunities, religious freedom, and better economy). However, this caused many problems because of their differences from the Americans. Firstly, the society and culture of the United States changed and blended because of the foreign customs, religions, languages, and traditions that “new” immigrants brought with them. Likewise, “new” immigrants affected the political side of the United …show more content…
By way of illustration, immigrants were forced to assimilate and Americanize. This was a method that was used to get them to absorb and take part in American culture while leaving their own customs behind. Another name for this was the “melting pot” because different nationalities blended together into one culture. The cultural landscape now looked different because most of the immigrants had become more American. This never would have been a concern if it weren’t for these diverse “new” immigrants who caused changes in society. Meanwhile, most unskilled immigrants were housed in multi-family tenements, which were apartment-style buildings that had poor living conditions. However, some lived in ethnic neighborhoods, where people could live with others that had similarities in languages, religions, and traditions. Communities like this gave immigrants a cultural identity, and it greatly affected society. Eventually, the “new” immigrants fled from rural to urban areas, causing problems like fires, crimes, disease, crowdedness, and lack of mass transit. This could be fixed into a liveable environment by creating methods of safety in populous areas such as firefighting, police, better plumbing, skyscrapers, and cable cars. Because of the sudden influx of immigrants into cities, the culture and way of life has