¶ … immigration in the United States is a complex topic that can only be understood in any depth by employing the perspectives of different social-science disciplines. The focus of this paper is immigration to American in the early to mid-nineteenth century and looks at the causes and consequences of it from a historical, economic, political, and geographic perspective. Given the paper's scope and the fact that immigration to America is such a large, complex topic, this paper will, by necessity, speak in generalities, using information from specific countries as examples rather than thoroughly analyzing and discussing the immigration experience of individual countries.
The United States began its "life" as a new nation "with no encouragement to immigrants except those offered by its [inherent] opportunities and with no barriers except those confronting native and foreigner alike" (Hansen, p. 56). Although "immigration policy has been a political issue since the nation's founding," it was not until the late nineteenth century that the nation began to seriously question this policy (INS, 1991). In the 1890s, Congress passed national immigration laws, created a federal agency to oversee immigration, and began to consider uniform rules for naturalization.
Three distinct stages of migration marked the nineteenth century. The first, from the 1830s to around 1854, consisted of people primarily from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The next period, from 1860 to 1890, consisted primarily of English and German peoples. The third period, from 1890 to 1914,...
These reasons are known as either "push" factors or "pull" factors. War, unemployment, and famine are examples of push factors. The ability to get cheap, fertile new land in America was a pull factor. "To many, probably the majority, economic freedom made an even greater appeal than political freedom" (Hansen, p. 160).
The bulk of the people who came to America during this time bolstered the U.S. economy in a broad, although not very technical, sense. In England, for example, "the government sought jealously to guard the technical knowledge and experiences that assured the nation its industrial supremacy...common laborers faced fewer difficulties" (Hansen, pp. 97-8). However, "no persons had ever departed in a more distressed condition than those of the years from 1815 to 1819. Many had to sell their labor as redemptioners in order to defray the cost of passage" (Hansen, p. 155).
The addition of an estimated 17 million people to America during these years had a profound effect on the country, especially from a political and economic perspective. Many of these immigrants moved to the growing American cities and towns where industrialization in the New World created a constant demand for labor. Industrial growth even made trans-Atlantic travel easier. Steam-powered ships running on regular schedules and the telegraph both worked to create a…
