Immigration In The 19th Century

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Immigrant Power In the early 20th century the Untied States ports were inundated with immigrants from all over the world. The new immigrants, many from Eastern European countries, come to this new world with only their dreams of a better life and the clothes on their back. America promised immigrants high wages and a chance to start a new life of hope for themselves and their family. Upton Sinclair in The Jungle (1906) argues that immigration in the late 19th century and early 20th century influenced city expansion and education reforms though educational movements and union activities. Immigration would form great history with the United States through the labor force. In the mid 19th century the labor force in the U.S. was sparse, but…show more content…
In the 1800s, children made up more than five percent of all the industrial labor force. (U.S. Censes.) For many households, by having the children work made the difference as to whether they could pay their bills or not. In the story The Jungle when Jurgis gets sick, the children most sell newspapers for the family. Families would have to rely on private charities in order to provide even the most basic necessities of life. This would cause an effect of many educational reform movements, such as the Charity Organization Movement (COS). The COS tried to make charity a scientific enterprise. The Settlement Movement put the social gospel into practice in a reform program. The other educational reform was Nativism, favoring native- born Americans over immigrants. Nativism was very popular with Jurgis, one of the main characters in The Jungle, When Jurgis first gets to the stockyard he only knows a few words, “No Lithuanian” and “job.” The book illustrates this to show that to get a job the first thing you must be able to say the word “job”, and “No Lithuanian”. Throughout The Jungle Jurgis learns more English and learns how adapt himself to American language and Chicago street smarts to help his family…show more content…
Most immigrants were encouraged to join unions. The union movement grew in the 1890s, but not very fast. Most employers discouraged union memberships, preferring to deal with the individual workers. If unions succeeded in forming, business leaders could often count on courts to issue injunctions. This would help to prevent workers to going on strike. But unions would continue to fight for better working conditions through collective barging instead of individual barging. Unions were a key survival for some immigrant worker in the time period. In The Jungle, the author wrote an example how unions helped immigrant’s education. “One of the first consequences of the discovery of the union was that Jurgis became desirous of learning English. He wanted to know what was going on at the meetings, and be able to take part in them.” (Sinclair 83). Unions would also teach members the way of the democracy versus wherever they were from such as Russia, Germany, and
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