European Immigration (HIST 1301 History)

LIFE AND LABOR IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD HIST 1301 | History European Immigration In search of better economic prospects on other continents, some sixty million Europeans left their home continent during the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The majority originated from mostly rural or less industrialised areas, such Sicily and southern Italy. During this period, some 28 million Europeans and Canadians arrived in the US, with the bulk arriving between 1890 and 1914. The majority were small-scale farmers from eastern and southern Europe. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the nations that had seen the largest number of immigrants, Germany and Ireland, continued to send numerous people there. Victims of religious persecution, particularly Jews living in the Russian Empire, fled poverty side by side. They had experienced prejudice and anti-Semitism, which frequently resulted in pogroms—waves of violence that killed people and destroyed their property. The remainder consisted of handicrafts displaced by industrialization and political dissidents. The countries that got the most after the US were Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Chile. In Argentina, where they constituted 30 percent of the population at one time, almost 4.5 million people emigrated. In addition to Spanish and Portuguese settlers, numerous Italians and Germans were drawn to Latin America. Between the 1850s and the 1920s, almost 5.1 million individuals travelled to Canada. The countries of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were other popular destinations for European immigration. After gold was discovered, South Africa in 1886 and Australia in 1851 became more alluring. After arriving in their new communities, immigrants from Europe took on a wide range of professions. A large number were employed in manufacturing. In cities like New York City, the garment industry employed a large number of Jews. Polish and other Eastern European immigrants to the United States worked at Pittsburgh's and Chicago's stockyards, which were hubs for the steel industry. In New England, Portuguese immigrants frequently worked in textile mills alongside French Canadians or in the fishing business. Italian immigrants worked in the building trades, mining, and agriculture in a variety of capacities. In the West, the Welsh were employed as miners. Across the country, Irish immigrants built railroads, worked in factories, and dug mines. All of these ethnic groups' women went into domestic work. The attitude of the nations where immigrants settled frequently varied according to the ethnicity of the arrivals. Germans and Christians from eastern Europe may have been ridiculed for their "foreign" customs, but they were generally welcomed in the US. When Irish immigrants first started arriving in large numbers in the primarily Protestant United States in the 1840s and 1850s, they were mostly Roman Catholics and were met with rejection. However, by the second half of the nineteenth century, they and their offspring had made a name for themselves as business owners, politicians, and law enforcement officials. However, as more recent immigrants, Jews and Italians frequently experienced prejudice, and anti-Semitism was pervasive. Many Protestants who were born in the United States and had lineage in northern Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century started to advocate for changes to the country's immigration policies. The Johnson-Reed Act, which placed a cap on the overall number of immigrants permitted to enter the country from outside the Western Hemisphere, was passed in 1924 in response to these demands. Furthermore, the legislation set a cap of 2 percent on the total number of immigrants, by country, who were already residing in the US as of 1890. Therefore, even if the overall cap had not been reached, an individual may be denied entry if the allowed number of immigrants of that specific nationality had already been accepted. Few immigrants arrived from southern or eastern Europe before to 1890; the majority came from northern and western Europe. Therefore, significantly more English, Irish, and German immigrants were permitted to enter under the 2 percent quota than were Jews from Italy, Poland, or Russia. Except for the Philippines, an American territory, immigration from Asia was prohibited. The situation in Latin America was very different. For example, the absence of mineral riches and temperatures suitable for cultivating sugar and coffee in their neighbours meant that countries like Uruguay and Argentina have never had significant populations. Thus, the influx of European immigrants was much-needed. In an effort to increase the proportion of White people in their largely African, Native American, and mixed-race populations, Brazil and Venezuela actively sought out European immigrants.