Nineteenth Century U.S. Immigration

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that between 1870 and 1900 an estimated 12 million people immigrated to the U. S. from all over the world especially from China, Germany, Ireland, England and eastern Europe. The author points out that most immigrants, the majority of whom were young adults, came because of the low wages and difficult living conditions in their homelands. The paper relates that these immigrants generally were met with a somewhat hostile environment that demanded they make behavioral adjustments, accept national social structures and American ideals and assume an American identity

From the Paper:

"Between 1851 and 1921, more than 3.5 million Irish arrived in North America, the majority of who were of the poorer farming classes. The proportions of family groups declined, while those of the working-age adolescents and adults increased. And while males dominated other ethnic immigrant groups, the nineteenth and early twentieth century Irish immigrants were distinctive in that the sexes reached near parity in numbers. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Irish immigrants were likely to be young, aged fifteen to twenty-four, unmarried, technically unskilled, Catholic, and from the poverty-mined west of Ireland."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cohn, Raymond L. "Immigration to the United States." Illinois State University. Retrieved November 13 2006 from: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/cohn.immigration.us
• Hansen, Lawrence Douglas Taylor. "The Chinese Six Companies of San Francisco and the smuggling of Chinese immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, 1882-1930." Journal of the Southwest. March 22, 2006. Retrieved November 13 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
• Hardwick, Susan W. "Galveston: Ellis Island of Texas." Journal of Cultural Geography. March 22, 2003. Retrieved November 13 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
• Kelleher, Patricia. "Young Irish workers: class implications of men's and women's experiences in gilded age Chicago." Eire-Ireland: a Journal of Irish Studies. March 22, 2001. Retrieved November 13 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.
• Miller, Kerby A. "Sending Out Ireland's Poor: Assisted Emigration to North America in the Nineteenth Century." Journal of Social History. March 22, 2005. Retrieved November 13 2006 from HighBeam Research Library.

More papers on Nineteenth Century U.S. Immigration:

• Analytical Essay # 31276 : "Chinese Immigration"
• Analytical Essay # 57003 : "The U.S. Immigration Policy"
• Analytical Essay # 28351 : "Out of This Furnace"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: