A land of immigrants
The United States has experienced immigration since its
founding. At times, immigrants have come in waves as
conditions in the U.S “pulled” them or conditions elsewhere
“pushed” them. Immigration to the U.S prior to 1840 totaled
approximately 13.1 million people1. The immigrants came
primarily from Ireland and Europe with Germans representing
the majority of the Europeans. In the 1840’s there were two
noteworthy waves of immigrants from Ireland and Germany.
The Irish potato famine “pushed” the Irish to the United States
to escape conditions in Ireland. Germans were “pulled” to the
United States by land and newly created jobs in the industrial
sector. In the late 19th and early 20th century immigration laws
were passed as the previous immigrants were now competing
for jobs with newly arrived immigrants.
Pushes from Europe
The Potato Famine
One of the most well known waves of immigration to the United States came
during the Irish potato famine. The Irish potato famine lasted from 1845 until
1851.2 Approximately 1 million people died of starvation and another 1.7
million people left Ireland for North America because of the potato blight3.
Agricultural based families were primarily subsistence farmers and they
depended on their potato crop to survive. Without their crops, farmers could
not pay their rent. Some landlords sent their tenants aboard “coffin ships” to
North America.4 Once the Irish arrived they worked in many different
industries such as mining, building railroads, boat builders, and dock hands. 5
By the middle of the 18th century Irish laborers dominated the urban
unskilled labor market and women without families worked as
chambermaids, domestic servants, and cooks6. The map below shows Irish
population centers circa 1872.
7
1
Census of the United States 1910, p.47
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm
3
Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1820-1870(p.101), by James M Berquist, 2008, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group
4
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/coffin.htm
5
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/america.htm
6
Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1820-1870(p.84), by James M Berquist, 2008, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group
2
The German flood
Prior to 1830, most Germans immigrated to locations other than the
United States. The expansion into the western U.S. attracted the German
Immigrants and their numbers grew until they peaked at about 215,000
in 1854.8 After the end of the U.S. Civil War, the numbers of German
immigrants started to rise again. The majority of German immigrants
were skilled workers and either found their way into industry or owned
small craft based businesses9. The Germans primarily settled in the midwest. They were concentrated in Wisconsin.
Ethnic Persecution
Some immigrants, such as the Jews of Eastern Europe, sought to escape
ethnic persecution. The first migration of Eastern European Jews
occurred in 1881 to escape persecution from the Russian Tsarist
government. Jewish Europeans also fled Russia from 1903 to 1906. The
last migration of the Jews happened before World War II in which
immigrants came to the United States to escape Nazi persecution in
Germany.
The Pull of America
The factors that “pulled” immigrants to the U.S. included free land, new jobs, the ability to create businesses, and increases in labor
demand from previous immigration. Since immigration increased aggregate demand, the demand for labor rose to meet the needs
of the immigrants. With the increase of demand for labor, real wages increased. The higher incomes of the immigrants created more
demand for goods and services when the immigrants spent their newly earned incomes. The increase in real wages attracted even
more immigrants to the United States. Immigration to the U.S. peaked in 1907 and during that decade 8,795,386 immigrants came
to the U.S.10.
Another reason for immigration was that the demand for labor increased due to movement of Americans to the western part of the
United States. Western migration allowed immigrants to own land which they were not able to do in Europe. The Homestead Act in
1862 allowed the government to give away land to anyone willing to build a settlement on a 160 acre plot of land. 11Many states also
advertised land to certain regions of Europe to attract immigrants to their state. 12
Jobs in railroad construction lured foreigners to the United States in the latter half of the 19 th century. The Transcontinental Railroad
employed workers from many countries. The Union Pacific railroad, for example, employed mainly Irishmen and the Central Pacific
Railroad employed Chinese immigrants to build the Transcontinental Railroad. Since real wages were higher in the United States,
this helped entice immigrants to take jobs in the United States such as working for the railroad.
Immigrants did not always come to the United States to work for businesses. Immigrants created businesses themselves as a way to
become successful in the United States. Andrew Carnegie came from Scotland and made a fortune in the steel industry. Other
immigrants used their entrepreneurial skills to create banks and film studios.
7
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/irish_pop_1872.jpg From The Statistics of the Population of the United States, Compiled
from the Original Returns of the Ninth Census, 1872.
8
Daily Life in Immigrant America, 1820-1870(p.9), by James M Berquist, 2008, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Publishing Group
9
Comparative Nativism:The United States, Canada and Australia, 1880s-1910s , Richard Jensen
10
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/timeline.html
11
http://www.shmoop.com/ellis-island-immigration/economy.html
12
http://www.shmoop.com/ellis-island-immigration/economy.html
Immigration Legislation
Chinese Exclusion Act
To prevent a non-white group from becoming established in the United States, the
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. This act did not allow the Chinese to
immigrate to the United States. The law was not removed until World War II. The
Chinese Exclusion Act was the first piece of legislation to restrict immigration flow
into the United States. 13
Literacy Test
In 1917, the Literacy Test Law was adopted for all immigrants. The law required all
immigrants to pass a literacy test prior to entry in the United States. The literacy test
law did not allow for any immigrants to come from Asian countries. Although the
Literacy Test law expanded the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 with more restrictions,
although overall immigration into the United States rose.
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Quota and National Origins Acts
In 1921, national quotas restricted the number of immigrants based on the direct proportion to each country’s presence in the
United States during 1910. The Quota Act of 1921 restricted the number of immigrants coming from Europe to 350,000 per year. In
1924, the National Origins Act was passed which required immigrants to get a visa from an American consulate from abroad. The
National Origins Act further reduced the European quota from 350,000 to 165,000. The Act changed the ratio of a foreign country’s
presence to 1890’s population figures.
13
http://borderbattles.ssrc.org/Hirschman/printable.html
http://jimsbikeblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/1888-cartoon-in-the-wasp-a-san-francisco-magazine-reflecting-anti-immigrantsentiment1.gif
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