Immigration

Immigration to America
By Kelsie Nye

During the American Industrial Revolution over 33 million immigrants journeyed to the United States to start new lives with new opportunities. These immigrants brought much diversity and change to the country of United States of America and connected many cultures and races. Their ancestors have much different lives than they did and because of their immigration to this country they have countless opportunities to make the best of their lives.

The first [|Chinese] immigrants came to the U.S. during the time of the gold rush in California around 1850. The Chinese immigrants played a major part in the mining and railroad industries in the U.S. However, as the growth of these industries diminished the Chinese faced increasing racial discrimination and spite. In response, they began to open small businesses in “Chinatowns”, the most well-known of which are in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago. Soon after these "Chinatowns" were established the flow of Chinese immigrants was cut off because of increasingly rascist and restrictive laws passed by the United States government. The flow of Chinese immigrants did not reach the same amount until after the 1960s when more liberal laws were passed.  (Congress) (Kim)
 * Chinese **





**Italian** From the 1880s to the 1920s, waves of [|Italians] poured into the American cities seeking economic opportunities. They primarily settled in the urban areas of the Northeast, Midwest, California, and Louisiana. At the time, Italy was the most crowded country in Europe with low wages and high taxes. Most immigrants were from rural areas of [|Italy] with little education. From 1890 to 1900 655,888 Italian immigrants arrived in the United States, two-thirds of which were men. When they arrived in the United States they were willing to work long hours for low wages which caused them to become competition with the Irish. This led to fights between the two groups of workers. Italians were mainly involved in the clothing industry, which was largely based in New York City. After rebuilding their lives in America and reestablishing themselves, some Italians moved back to Italy.





Jewish In the mid 1800s, the [|Jewish]population in New York City was just about 16,000. However, by the early 1900s it was almost half a million, this jump in population was due to the lure of better opportunities in the United States than available in Europe. The Jews had many reasons as to why they would want to immigrate to America, the chance at freedom, modern vehicles such as the steam engine and train, and to get away from the Antisemitism policy in Russia. Although some Orthodox Jews were afraid that immigrating would not allow them to remain kosher or even to be Jewish at all, most decided that the best choice for themselves and their families would be to immigrate. Most settled in large cities to ensure they would always be able to stay together and keep in touch. In the Northeast Jews settled mainly in; New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore, in the Midwest they settled in; Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh. To this day, some of these cities are some of the most Jewish populated areas in the country.

 

Works Cited:

>
 * Congress, Library of. "Immigration." //Library of Congress//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan 2012. .
 * Danilov, Dan. "Italian Immigration." //Spartacus Educational// . N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan 2012. .
 * Kim, Sukkoo. "Immigration, Industrial Revolution and Urban Growth in the United States, 1820-1920." . N.p., January 2007. Web. 12 Jan 2012. .
 * Sarna, Jonathan, and Jonathan Golden. "The American Jewish Experience in the Twentieth Century: Antisemitism and Assimilation." //The 20th Century: National Humanities Center//. National Humanity Center, October, 2000. Web. 17 Jan 2012. <http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/jewishexp.htm>.