The immigrants that migrated to the United States
The Spurious Era In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States saw rapid industrialization and population growth. All over the world, people longed for wealth and happiness just like America saw, so many of them decided to take risks and come to America. But once they got here they found that it was not so great after all. This period was later termed as “The Gilded Age.” I completely agree with the name because of the false image that the immigrants were receiving, the false sense of wealth that middle-class citizens felt, and the fierce robber barons of the economy.
Even the U.S. legal system was used against them to discriminate against the immigrants. However, such experiences still did not stop the overflow of immigration to the United States. The Chinese, the Japanese, and the Filipino who were the first immigrants to the United States experienced such adversities. After the Civil War, many Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States.
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.
The Gilded Age in America's young history is characterized as a period of time in which America appeared to be this beautiful, prosperous solace. However, at its core, America was this corrupt and amoral place in which discrimination and hatred ran rampant. The Gilded Age occurred during the same time that a large stream of new age immigrants began to migrate to the country seeking out opportunity, prosperity, and freedom. The increase in immigrants was directly responsible for the urban growth that took place during this period. The immigrants may not have been able to bring much of their tangible possessions with them but the culture and traditions they would carry with them to the United States would forever impact the future of America.
Lex Gilded Age Immigrants During the Gilded Age “New” Immigrants came and were worse at integrating than the Old Immigrants. New Immigrants which hailed places like Greece, Mexico, and China. New Immigrants that didn’t speak English and didn’t share the same customs. How racist was the gilded age?
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
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, majority of the American population saw immigrants as a threat and oppose their entrance. They believe the immigrants will compete with American citizens on jobs and housings that are FOR American citizens. They also believed that because immigrants will work for low wages, most employers would hire cheap immigrants for all kinds of jobs, especially in factories. Immigrants faced racism and discrimination in the workspace, and are viewed as inferior to Americans. However, as an activist, Jane Addams has a different view on the treatment of immigrants and saw them as people who needed support in order to establish their footing the society.
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
The Gilded Age was an important era in American history, this was the time of economic growth and industrialization, but also had high percentages of poverty and immigrant problems because of urbanization which provided horrible living conditions for many people. This started with labor force and farmers. Historically, farming became increasingly hard due to new expensive equipment, railroads increased farmers’ costs by gouging them, foreign competitor and overproduction made prices go down. Many farmers responded by overproducing, this lead to more debt for farmers because they needed money to buy land and machines. Similarly, the labor force had to abide the same thing.
Between 1870 and 1900, an estimated 25 million immigrants had made their way to the United States. This era, titled the Gilded Age, played an extremely important role in the shaping of American society. The United States saw great economic growth and social changes; however, as the name suggested, the Gilded Ages hid a profound number of problems. During this period of urbanization, the publicizing of wealth and prosperity hid the high rates of poverty, crime, and corruption. European immigrants who had come to the United States in search of jobs and new opportunities had fallen into poverty as well as poor working and living conditions.
A little information on new and old immigrants: Old immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe, were protestant and were literate and skilled. Your new immigrant gives you information that they came from Southern and Eastern Europe they were not protestant, they were catholic and Jewish, and were also illiterate and unskilled. Although new immigrants during 1890 to 1914 came in much larger number than old immigrants. Mostly Southern and Eastern Europeans like Italy
American colonial settlers came from Britain with heavy influence from Germany. As the need for industrialization was a concern, the inflow of immigration from European countries such as Germany, France, and Spain was fairly “normal” and welcomed; the culture was similar. However, as populations rose and industrialization and modernization were taking place, aspirations of emigrating to the United States also grew. Immigration began to be a problem when it came from places with exotic and much differing cultural values such as Africa, Asia, and
