Mass Migration

Reasons for immigration and how it is tied into the history of the USA The first recorded type of large immigration we saw to the American continent was in the colonial period, which started in the 1600s. There are four main phases of immigration to the USA, each of these brought distinct national groups, ethnicities and races to America. Immigration has been a major source of large population growth spurts and cultural changes in the USA. The main reasons for migration are poverty, war, oppression (political as well as religious) and economic reasons. All of these reasons are part of the history of immigrants that have come to the USA through time. Settlers of the Americas The first immigrants arrived in 1607 and founded the Colony

This period ushered the first era of mass migration to the USA, from the 1820s too the 1880s about 15 million immigrants arrived in the USA. Many of these people chose to take up a living in agriculture in the Midwest while others flocked to the cities such as Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia, mostly to work in factories etc..

Factors in both the USA as well as Europe shaped this transition. In Europe most young men had just been discharged from military service due to the Napoleonic Wars being over, industrialization and agricultural consolidation was taking over, creating a new generation of young men that were not able to keep up with the new technologies available to employers and the Industry in general, and thus could not earn a living in the new order.

In the USA demand for immigrant labor skyrocketed for two main reasons: the settlement and exploration of the Midwest due to the now finished Erie canal in 1825 and the related rise of the port of New York City. At the same time first stirrings of industrialization was taking place in the USA, especially in the textile industry. Immigrants as usual tended to cluster in certain neighborhoods and areas dependent on their

Immigrants from northern and western europe essentially making it impossible for eastern and southern europeans to enter the US as immigrants, and making it entirely impossible for asian immigrants to enter the US. Jews from Nazi Germany before and after WW II as well as holocaust survivors were granted entrance to the US. The same applied to jews escaping communist rule in eastern europe. In 1965 the Hart-Celler act was created along with the civil rights movement taking place at the same time, eliminating the restrictions on immigration.

Now in the 21st century america finds itself once again in a heated debate regarding immigration, mostly from southern and latin america. Immigrants have throughout history of US immigration contributed and helped form american culture from its core up, and each new wave brought new traditions, languages and religions with