Immigrants’ Contribution to America

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Eastern European Immigrants in the U.S.
Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
Changing the Political Landscape
The Arts
America was Built by What it Despised
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

During the period of 1890 to 1920, the U.S. experienced a surge of immigration often referred to as the ‘second great wave’ where more than 25 million people came to America, again mostly from Europe but a majority of this wave consisted of people from the Southern and Eastern regions of the continent such as Italy and Poland. 25 million immigrants added to a population of just 62 million as of 1890 was an enormous percentage gain.

It makes the estimated 12-20 illegal immigrants from Mexico in the U.S. today seem less than spectacular. (Pedraza, 1996). This mass influx of immigrants was needed and welcomed but not by all, as today. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing during this time, society was completing its transformation from farm to city life and urban manpower was in short supply. The immigrants had jobs and could build their new life and America benefited because this endless source of labor streaming into Ellis Island made it the most industrialized and economically successful country in the world. This mutually beneficial relationship, however, came at a cost to both the immigrants and their new country.

Eastern European Immigrants in the U.S.

The Eastern European immigrants flocked to the new industrial jobs in the city which filled an economical need in America. On the other hand, their presence also instigated a cultural divide between the current resident small-town Protestant farmers and the new Catholic immigrants with the thick accents who were not ‘men of the land’ but rather had succumbed to the sinful life of the city. (Crossen, 2006) Prior to 1890, the majority of the voting public was considered within the boundaries of the social middle-class.

By 1920, the country had become more socially divided. “The massive influx of immigrants warped America’s historically middle-class character and created vast urban slums and a European-style antagonism between rich, fattened on cheap labor, and poor.” (Locke, 2002). The rapid growth of the immigrant population became a threat to the country’s natural resources when there had been plenty for all. The expansion of people and settlements along with over-hunting led to the creation of federal preservation programs such as the federal parks.

The predominantly peasant Eastern Europeans were one of the most poverty-stricken immigrant groups that entered the U.S. Few were able to ever move far from the city in which they first arrived or onward from the low-skilled manual labor jobs they secured upon arrival. “After arriving at Ellis Island or to the port at Baltimore, many Eastern Europeans stayed in cities to work in dangerous industrial jobs or moved to mine communities in Pennsylvania to work in dangerous mining positions.” (Daniels, 1990. p. 149).

Though the jobs were hard and the pay very low, the conditions were better than what they were in Eastern Europe. Still, the standard of living for these immigrants was abysmal by any standard. Many were motivated by a desire to make money in the U.S. then return to their homeland and enjoy a higher standard of living there. Unfortunately for most, this dream never materialized. (Golden, 1994).

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Eastern

During the turn of the 20^th century, the fear of immigrants reached a fever pitch. The roots of this new racism were from ‘old world’ anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic mindsets. The ideology that grew from immigrant racism is the belief that the Western and Northern European Anglo-Saxon heritage was a superior ‘race’ to Eastern and Southern Europeans. (Higham, 1988). These widespread beliefs had an effect on immigration policy in the U.S. which, in the early 1900’s, moved to limit the numbers and types of people allowed to immigrate. The anti-foreigner sentiment crossed all segments of society, from the Protestant farmers in the furthest reaches of the rural regions to Ivy League elitists.

A Harvard-educated man formed the Immigration Restriction League in 1894 which made recommendations to the government. They advocated testing the literacy of refugees as a prerequisite to entering the country or gaining citizenship. This was intended to slow the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern European which had been, “sending an alarming number of illiterates, paupers, criminals, and madmen who endangered American character and citizenship.” (Hirschman, 2006).

Southern

Southern European immigrants from Italy came from great cultural centers of the world. Some were celebrated intellectuals with a far-reaching understanding and appreciation of culture but the majority of Italian immigrants were not of this classification. The largest wave of Italian immigrants to the U.S. came between 1890 and 1920. Most of this group (about 90 percent) originated from Sicily, the far southern part of Italy.

They had strong family bonds, were known as hard-workers and deeply mistrusted institutions such as the government, labor unions and businesses in general. Italian immigrants “did not see their salvation in politics or government – rather, they saw government and politics as something to be avoided; the intelligent position was to keep your head down, to keep quiet, to escape notice by the people who ran the major institutions of society.” (Barone, 2003).

Their mistrust of institutions extended to the school system. The immigrant children often dropped out of school and entered the job market, many times a job within the ‘underworld’ to help their family financially. Though these Southern European immigrants came from the world’s cultural center, they had hardly any impact on America’s cultural institutions.

Old Meets New

Of the more than 25 million people that immigrated to the U.S. between 1890 and the 1920, approximately 10 percent were Jewish. For the same reasons Polish and Italian immigrants settled in neighborhoods labeled ‘Little Warsaw’ or ‘Little Italy,’ Jewish immigrants grouped together as well to form tight-knit communities. They established cultural organizations and theaters in addition to schools and synagogues. However, the Jews that stayed in the city, unlike the Polish and Italian immigrants, adapted well to the American lifestyle. They joined or formed businesses, political parties, labor unions, etc. while integrating their ‘old world’ culture into to the American culture.

Jews that traveled west remained relatively isolated within their groups. Much the same as the non-Jewish Eastern European immigrants, Jews were ostracized by the ‘real’ Americans. “Jews faced anti-Semitism during this time and were attacked in popular literature with negative stereotypes about their honesty, loyalty, business practices, and religion.” (“Coming to America” 2003).

The Eastern European contingent of immigrants to the U.S. from 1890 to 1920 was predominantly Polish made up of peasants along with unemployed mine and factory workers. Upon arriving in America, the Poles generally secured employment in low-paid, unskilled industrial jobs. They built churches, established schools, newspapers and various other organizations within their own community.

These Polish communities offered assistance and were comforting to migrants who were in a new cultural environment because the community shared the same heritage and language. Living within these communal surroundings also acted as a buffer to outside acts of discrimination and degradation. (Grocholska, 1999).

Changing the Political Landscape

Largely because of strict immigration laws introduced in the early 1920’s, mass influxes of refugees ended at that time. The children of this last ‘great wave’ have had immense political, social and economic influences on American life. The majority of the Eastern and Southern Europeans were Jewish or Catholic. These two groups have overwhelmingly voted with the Democratic Party. Protestants are the Republican Parties base supporters. Massive social, economic and cultural reform initiatives such as President Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930’s and President Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960’s would not have been possible if not for the great waves of Eastern and Southern European migration. (Hirschman, 2006).

The Arts

Immigrants from this period and those descended from them have been very influential in the area of creative arts over the past century. They dominated the entertainment industry during the first half of the 1900’s accounting for many of the top actors, writers, producers and directors in the American movie industry. “The majority of Hollywood film directors who have won two or more Academy Awards were either immigrants or the children of immigrants.” (Hirschman, 2005). These children of Eastern and Southern Europeans also became well known Broadway playwrights and composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Ira and George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern.

America was Built by What it Despised

The public and political hysteria spawning racism, misinformation and fear that accompanied the massive immigration of Eastern and Southern Europeans during the years of 1890 to 1920 proved to be unfounded. “Based on standard measures of socioeconomic achievement, residential location, and intermarriage, the children and grandchildren of the ‘new immigrants’ of the early 20th century have almost completely assimilated into American society.” (Alba. 2003).

This immigration hysteria is a familiar issue to present-day Americans. All of the same language, educational, economic and cultural barriers of immigration that concerned ‘real’ Americans who relegated Eastern and Southern European immigrants to second-class status nearly a century ago are being invoked today by those fearful of another mass immigration, this time from south of the U.S. border. If the Protestant, Western European descendants of the early 1900’s could see the nation as it is now, they might inform those who fear immigration today that America was and continues to be built by immigrants and their descendants who quickly assimilate into the culture and add greatly to the social, political and economic experiment that is America.

Conclusion

Immigrants built the country but are now, as then, are an unwanted commodity. It has been suggested that the U.S. could consider adopting similar immigration regulations as in the U.K. where a person cannot immigrate without first securing employment. Everybody wins, many jobs are awaiting immigrants who need them as have been evidenced by the number of those illegal aliens now working in the U.S. The U.S. economy also wins because of the higher tax base created by the new citizens the immigrants.

Works Cited

Alba, Richard and Victor Nee. Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. (2003). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Barone, Michael. “The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of the Global Age: Italian Cultural Identity and Migration.” The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change. Series IV, West Europe, Vol. 5. (2003).

“Coming to America.” Teacher Materials. National Museum of American Jewish History. (2003).

Crossen, Cynthia. “US Immigration Evolved as the Nation Grew and Changed.” The Wall Street Journal. (2006).

Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Ethnicity and Immigration in American Life. New York: Harper Collins. (1990).

Golden, Hilda. “Immigrant and Native Families: The Impact of Immigration and the Demographic Transformation of Western Massachusetts, 1850-1900.” New York: University Press of America, pp. 75, 85-87. (1994).

Grocholska, Julitta. “Polish Immigration to the US.” Polonia Today. Anglopol Corporation. (1999).

Higham, John. “Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925.” (2^nd Ed.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. (1988, orig. pub. 1955).

Hirschman, Charles. “Immigration and the American Century.” Demography Vol. 42, pp. 595-620. (2005).

Hirschman, Charles. “The Impact of Immigration on American Society: Looking Backward to the Future.” Border Battles: The US Immigration Debates. Social Science Research Council. (2006).

Locke, Robert. “Immigration and Population Growth.” Front Page Magazine. (2002).

Pedraza, Sylvia. “Origins of Destinies: Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in America.” Boston: Wadsworth. (1996).

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