The Wave of Immigrants
It's interesting that most immigrants to the United States did not sail to America for political or religious reasons, as the early settlers may have done. Most immigrants in the 1800s came because of economic deprivation in their home countries, and African-Americans came involuntarily from Africa as forced laborers to Southern plantation owners.
New immigrants typically worked in menial, labor-intensive, low-paying, and dangerous jobs that the average American would shun. Because they were social outcasts until they assimilated into American society, immigrants usually stuck to themselves, maintaining their own cultural traditions and religions.
The Melting Pot Is Forged
The influx of so many immigrants, especially once they began intermarrying, brought about the phrase “melting pot,” meaning that many immigrant traditions and bloodlines were blended together, creating a new society. Alarmed, Americans began to limit the numbers of immigrants as early as 1790, when Congress passed an act requiring a two-year residency period before one could qualify for U.S. citizenship. In 1795, that residency period rose to five years, and in 1798, during John Adams's administration, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. One of these new laws (the Naturalization Act) increased the waiting period to fourteen years, while the Alien Act allowed foreigners to be expelled if they were thought to threaten American interests. These acts were either repealed or expired in the early 1800s, but their passage was historic.
No doubt the greatest wave of immigrants to U.S. soil occurred between 1840 and the 1920s. During this period approximately 37 million immigrants arrived, mostly of German, Irish, Italian, English, Scottish, Austro-Hungarian, Scandinavian, Russian, Baltic, and Jewish descent.
Many of these immigrants arrived in New York Harbor and passed the following inscription on the Statue of Liberty:
Driving Forces
The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late eighteenth century and spread across Europe, changed the economic and social realities for many families, as did the potato famine that ravaged Ireland in the 1840s. Immigrants facing poverty at home believed American streets were paved with gold. Coming across in ships' steerage, many were swiftly disillusioned.
About 70 percent of all European immigrants initially landed in New York City. If they came after 1892, most went through their processing and questioning at Ellis Island, which was opened after immigrants inundated Castle Garden on Manhattan Island. Some groups preferred to stay in New York City, while others made homes in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans.
Chinese immigrants during the 1850s entered through San Francisco and stayed in the region. But with railroads contributing to a transient society, many immigrants settled wherever they could find work. Those seeking heavy industry often moved inland to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis. German immigrants settled extensively in Texas, the Midwest, New York, and Pennsylvania, where plenty of work was available in skilled labor or agriculture. While Italian Americans worked in light manufacturing, retail business, or the construction industry, Jewish Americans preferred to settle in major cities such as New York, Chicago, or Boston. Members of Slavic groups (Polish or Slovak Americans) found work in heavy manufacturing towns.
Chinese Americans worked mostly on building the railroads, in light manufacturing, or in domestic, retail, or mining trades. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prevented Chinese immigration for ten years. This stemmed from economic hardship during the Arthur administration where Chinese and Irish immigrants vied for the few available jobs, and the tensions led to street fighting in San Francisco.
Women immigrants worked in laundries, retail shops, or light manufacturing; some, such as Irish American women, were employed as domestic servants. It often took two or three generations for immigrants to move up the socioeconomic ladder and earn wages that could provide the comfortable standard of living that other Americans enjoyed.
