Immigration: Migration To The United States

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Immigration is the migration of people of other countries to, in this case, the United States of America. People have many different reasons as to why they might choose to migrate to the United States. Some of the most common reasons for immigrants to flee their native countries are political, social, and most common, economic. Those that choose to leave because of political reasoning may seek to find a political voice or freedom from an oppressive government. Those that chose to migrate because of social reasons, may for example be seeking religious freedom. Last, but certainly not least, immigrants coming into the United States may be seeking finical stability and opportunity. In turn, some U.S. citizens then and now have issues with immigration…show more content…
Throughout history, immigration has been “a swinging door that often opens during periods of economic prosperity and slams shut when times get tough.” (Vatz, 2013) This being particularly true when economic despair is in effect. Immigrants usually mean cheap labor. Whether or not people are for or against immigration into the United States, one thing is for certain, “Tens of millions of immigrants over four centuries have made the United States what it is today. …their hard work benefited themselves and their new home country.” (Hiner, 2008) Unfortunately, there is much more than a few pages worth of United States immigration history, but in the following paragraphs, we hope to address and discuss some of the more prominent historical points including the different “waves” immigration into the United…show more content…
immigration history is known as “New Immigration.” This is around 1840 to the 1900’s. This is also known as the industrial age. These new settlers came from southern and eastern Europe. Immigrants came to America during these eras mostly for economic opportunities. As the United States saw unprecedented industrial growth following the Civil War an unprecedented demand for labor, mostly cheap and unskilled, also grew. The vast majority of these "new immigrants" came here seeking work and the dream of going from "rags to riches". More so than before, this group of new settlers faced more of a hardship in terms of acceptance. There was a well-known group called the “Know Nothings” who were strongly anti-immigration. Anyway, this wave of immigrants helped aid in the induction of new neighborhoods such as Little Italy and China Town. In these areas, the immigrants were able to speak and act more as they would in their homelands. “The contributions of the new immigrants were transformative to America. The ethnic diversity of the immigrants changed America into a more multi-cultural society with varied language, traditions and practices. The cultural contributions of the new immigrants can be seen in the art, food, music and culture of modern America.” (DeLorenzo,
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