Welcome To All By Joseph Keppler

The world imagines America as the county of new beginnings. Anyone, no matter where you come from or what you believe in can come to America in search of success and wealth. For the new immigrants this stereotype of America all became surreal immediately after the Civil War and extending up until the 1920’s. America will become diverse with the cost of filth, low paying jobs, diseases, and crime. America became the melting pot of the world with people from the lands of Southern Europe and Eastern Europe such as Italy, Russia, Poland and Greece. As well as Asian locales such as China and Japan. The vast majority of these new immigrants came to America seeking for political, social, and economical reasons. In the cartoon “Welcome to All” by Joseph Keppler published in the magazine Puck (1880), it portrays Uncle Sam standing in front of an ark with his arms open to immigrants. There are signs next to the ark that claim all good things about America that other countries don’t have. People were leaving their home countries to move to America for a better life. However, this did not last for long.

Immigrants bring innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit to the U.S. economy. Language, customs, religions and traditions clashed with those prevailing in the United States at the time. This social conflict led to discrimination against such groups and the Irish on the east coast and the Asians on the western coast. This also aided in the neighborhood distinctions such as Chinatown and Little Italy. These neighborhoods developed in large cities, as immigrant groups clustered together and continued to speak, worship and practice the traditional ways of their