Industrial Revolution Immigration

Words: 1710
Pages: 7

If you walk down the street, you will probably see restaurants from all around the world. The United States is known for being diverse country and accepting of people all around the world. Immigrants comprise about 13 percent of the United States population. However, Immigration has always been a controversial topic throughout the history of United States. Immigration has been a controversial topic throughout the history of United States - from its beginnings in the Industrial Revolution, to the influx of and backlash against Asian Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and finally to the importation and deportation of Mexicans over the last century. The topic of immigration has been argued for many decades. Many …show more content…
Industrialization marked a shift to powered technologies, factories, and mass production. Factories required a lot of skilled workers. Many people have moved out of urban areas. At the time period, many Europeans were suffering from poverty. These workers spent years in factories but were paid poorly in Europe. Some also were trying to escape from religious and political persecution. When the Industrial Revolution began in the United States, this provided an opportunity for these people to come to our country. Since factories could produce much more products than an individual could produce by hand, we needed people to work in the factories. The Industrial Revolution led to the necessity for a lot of workforces. Most of the immigrants who came to the United States ended up staying in big cities and worked in industry. These people who came to the United States heard there was the tremendous economic opportunity in our country. The expectations were often being portrayed as streets were paved with gold, and there was a lot of economic opportunity in the United States. People who come to the United States would automatically become rich. Thus, they left Europe to seek for an opportunity in the United States. However, that was not the reality. There were two major waves of European immigration. This first wave came from 1820-1860 from North and West Europe. People came from Germany, France, Ireland, and Great Britain. …show more content…
In the 1850s, the first Asians who migrated to the United States were the Chinese. The gold rush and the construction of railroads also attracted more immigration from Asia. These immigrants mainly worked in gold mines and railroads but also took agricultural jobs and factory work. As Chinese laborers grew successful in the United States, a number of people opened their own business. As the numbers of Chinese laborers increased, so did the strength of anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers in the American economy. The Naturalization Act of 1870 was a way for the Americans to govern ways that foreigners may obtain U.S. citizenship. Ironically, America’s founding fathers did not set rules for obtaining citizenship in the United States and such in the colonial era, these naturalizations laws were passed to encouraging more immigrants. The government then realized that the best way to encourage more immigrants was to offer the immigrants equal privileges. However, Americans were becoming less welcoming as times goes. Certain laws were set of how immigrants could acquire citizenship. In 1870, Congress expanded the list of those eligible for naturalization to include all whites and persons of African descent. Nonetheless, Asians still remained ineligible for naturalization. Some native-born Americans who obtained low wages and had unemployment problems