Late 19th-Century Immigration
Push and Pull Factors
Immigrants left their home countries for a mix of reasons historians group into push factors (what drove them away) and pull factors (what drew them to the U.S.).
Push factors included poverty, religious persecution, and political instability. The Russian pogroms against Jews in the 1880s, for example, unleashed waves of violence that drove thousands of Jewish families to seek refuge abroad. Political upheavals across Europe similarly uprooted people looking for stability.
Pull factors centered on what the United States seemed to offer:
- Economic opportunity: Industrialization created huge demand for cheap labor in factories and cities, meaning jobs were available even for unskilled workers
- Religious freedom: The U.S. reputation for tolerance attracted those fleeing persecution, particularly Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Catholics from Southern Europe
- Political stability: Democratic institutions and the rule of law appealed to immigrants coming from countries with oppressive or unstable governments
Patterns of Immigration and Settlement
Between 1880 and 1920, over 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States, primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece) as well as Asia. This wave is called the "New Immigration" to distinguish it from earlier waves that came mostly from Northern and Western Europe (Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia). The shift reflected worsening economic and political conditions in Southern and Eastern Europe during this period.
Most new immigrants settled in ethnic enclaves in major cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston. Neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Chinatown, and Polish Hill gave newcomers a sense of community where they could speak their native language, find familiar food, and rely on established support networks. These enclaves served as a bridge, helping immigrants gradually adapt to American society while preserving their cultural heritage.
U.S. immigration policy during this era treated different groups very differently:
- The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese laborers from immigrating, reflecting anti-Asian sentiment and fears of economic competition. It was the first federal law to restrict immigration based on nationality.
- The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal arrangement with Japan that limited Japanese immigration, primarily in response to anti-Japanese hostility on the West Coast.
European immigration, by contrast, remained relatively open until the quota laws of the 1920s.
Immigrant Adaptation to America
Challenges Faced by Immigrants
New arrivals confronted serious obstacles. Language barriers made it hard to find work, access services, or navigate daily life. Cultural differences in customs and social norms led to misunderstandings, and discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, and perceived "racial" differences limited opportunities at every turn.
Most immigrants ended up in low-paying, dangerous jobs. Unskilled positions in steel mills, textile factories, and meatpacking plants were frequently filled by immigrants willing to accept lower wages and harsh conditions. Long hours, minimal safety protections, and hazardous environments put workers at constant risk of injury and illness.
Living conditions were equally grim. Urban tenements were overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and lacked proper sanitation. Jacob Riis documented these conditions in his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, using photographs and vivid descriptions of New York City's slums to shock middle-class readers. Diseases like tuberculosis and cholera spread easily in these cramped quarters.
Support Systems and Assimilation
Immigrants didn't face these challenges alone. Several institutions helped them adjust:
- Mutual aid societies provided financial assistance, social support, and cultural activities for specific ethnic groups. Italian benevolent societies and Jewish landsmanshaftn (hometown associations) are two well-known examples.
- Religious institutions like churches and synagogues served as centers of community life, helping immigrants maintain their faith and traditions while building social connections.
- Ethnic organizations such as the Polish National Alliance gave immigrants a sense of belonging and practical help navigating American life.
Public schools played a major role in assimilating immigrant children. Compulsory education laws required attendance, and curricula emphasized English language instruction, American history, and civics. The goal was to instill a shared national identity. This came with a real cost, though: immigrant children were often discouraged from speaking their native languages or practicing cultural traditions at school, and assimilation pressures could create tension between generations within immigrant families.
Nativism and Anti-Immigration
Nativist Movements and Ideologies
Not everyone welcomed the newcomers. Nativism refers to the favoring of native-born inhabitants over immigrants, and it had deep roots in American politics. The Know-Nothing Party (formally the American Party) of the 1850s had campaigned against Catholic immigration and tried to restrict immigrants' political influence. By the 1880s, the American Protective Association (founded 1887) carried on this tradition, promoting anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment and claiming that Catholic immigrants threatened American institutions.
Nativists also drew on pseudo-scientific ideas to justify their positions:
- Social Darwinism misapplied Darwin's concept of "survival of the fittest" to human societies, arguing that certain races and cultures were naturally superior to others
- Eugenics took this further, promoting the idea that the population's genetic quality could be "improved" by restricting reproduction among "undesirable" groups, including immigrants from certain countries
These ideas gave a veneer of scientific respectability to what was fundamentally prejudice.
Restrictive Immigration Policies
Nativist sentiment eventually translated into law. The Immigration Restriction League, founded in 1894 by Harvard graduates, lobbied for literacy tests and quotas targeting Southern and Eastern Europeans, whom they considered intellectually and culturally inferior to Northern and Western Europeans.
The most significant restrictions came in the 1920s with the Quota Acts:
- The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established the first numerical limits on immigration, setting quotas based on nationality.
- The National Origins Act of 1924 tightened these quotas further, basing them on the national origins of the U.S. population as recorded in the 1890 census. This deliberately favored Northern and Western Europeans while sharply limiting Southern and Eastern European immigration. It also completely excluded Asian immigrants (except Filipinos, since the Philippines was a U.S. territory).
Alongside restriction came the Americanization movement of the early 20th century, which pushed immigrants to assimilate through English classes, citizenship courses, and the promotion of American values. Organizations like the Ford Motor Company and the Chamber of Commerce backed these efforts. Immigrants were encouraged, and sometimes pressured, to abandon their native languages and cultural practices in favor of American customs.
Immigrant Contributions to America
Economic Contributions
Despite the discrimination they faced, immigrants were essential to American economic growth during this period.
Industrial labor: The rapid expansion of industries like steel, textiles, and meatpacking depended heavily on immigrant workers willing to fill demanding and dangerous positions. Without this labor force, the pace of industrialization would have been far slower.
Infrastructure: Chinese immigrants were critical to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad (completed 1869), doing some of the most dangerous work, including blasting tunnels through the Sierra Nevada. Immigrant labor also built roads, bridges, and canals that connected the growing nation.
Entrepreneurship: Immigrant-owned small businesses, from specialty food stores to foreign-language newspapers, served ethnic communities and helped revitalize urban neighborhoods. These businesses created jobs and contributed to the growth of city economies.
Cultural Contributions
Immigrants brought traditions that permanently shaped American culture:
- Italian immigrants introduced pizza, pasta, and gelato, now staples of American cuisine
- Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe brought bagels, lox, and matzo ball soup
- Musical and dance traditions like Irish step dancing, polka, and mariachi became part of American cultural life
Many immigrants and their children rose to prominence through educational opportunities in the U.S. Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, built a steel empire and became one of America's greatest philanthropists. Irving Berlin, who arrived from Russia as a child, composed iconic American songs including "God Bless America" and "White Christmas." (Note: Albert Einstein, often cited in this context, immigrated in 1933, well after this unit's time period, but he illustrates the broader pattern of immigrant achievement.)
Social and Political Contributions
Immigrants played central roles in the labor movement. Samuel Gompers, a Jewish immigrant from England, founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and fought for the eight-hour workday and improved safety standards. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, an Irish immigrant, became one of the most prominent labor organizers in the country, advocating for coal miners and against child labor.
Immigrants and their descendants also shaped American politics. Fiorello La Guardia, an Italian-American, served as Mayor of New York City and implemented progressive reforms including public housing and social welfare programs. Felix Frankfurter, an Austrian-Jewish immigrant, went on to serve as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
More broadly, immigrant communities provided support and leadership for major social movements, including the labor movement, women's suffrage, and later the civil rights movement. The story of immigration in this era is one of hardship and resistance, but also of people who fundamentally shaped the country they had chosen to call home.