GA - New Immigrants Lesson

New Immigrants

In the decades after the Civil War, more and more Europeans immigrated to America. They differed from earlier immigrant groups who mostly came from northern and western Europe, were typically Protestant, spoke English, and arrived with the government's welcome. In contrast, many of the new immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe, often were Jewish or Roman Catholic, and usually spoke no English. The U.S. government welcomed the wealthy among these new immigrants but forced poorer people to pass health and welfare tests at government reception centers such as the Ellis Island Immigrant Station located in New York Harbor.

Whether Asian or European, these new immigrants tended to settle in areas populated by people from the same countries who spoke the same languages and worshipped in the same ways. Because poverty and political instability were common in their home countries, the new immigrants were likely to be poor. They could not afford to buy farmland, so they worked as unskilled laborers and lived mostly in cities. There they created communities to imitate the cultures of their home countries, including foreign-language newspapers, ethnic stores and restaurants, and houses of worship. The new immigrants did not blend into American society the way earlier immigrants had. Cities grew rapidly during this time period and new buildings and other structures were built to accommodate this growing urban population. View the presentation below on Late 19th Century Urbanization.

 

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