Dbq 1920s Immigration Essay

Gjon Ljucovic 10/26/08
DBQ on Immigration Ms. Cavalli

Immigration is the act of people entering into a new country to settle permanently. People immigrated to the United States starting in the 1820’s primarily, and still do to this very day! During the 1820’s until the late 1870’s, mainly only immigrants from the Northern and Western Europe came to the U.S, and these immigrants were called “Old Immigrants.” During the 1880’s and until the 1920’s is when the “New Immigrants” arrived to America from Southern and Eastern Europe. They all arrived using steam ships, which would advance during the years to shorten the traveling time to get to America. Also, there would be many challenges, as well as opportunities, along
Immigrants had many obstacles that they had to overcome that would bring them to reality, and let them recognize what American had in store for them. One of the obstacles that immigrants faced was discrimination in all sorts. The Irish were discriminated against because they had come in great numbers during the periods of immigration (in this case 1820’s until 1890’s). So, when they came they needed jobs, and nativists complained that they were taking all of the jobs that Americans should have. Nativists were a group of people that wanted immigrants out of America for many reasons. Also, the Irish flooded cities when they came, which caused an abundance of fighting between the Protestant whites (Americans) and the majority of the Irish people were Catholic. The Irish would live in cities and go about their religious ways (go to church, celebrate holidays, and etc.), and the Protestants didn’t like this because they wanted to keep the nation mainly Protestant (as it had been before). The Chinese were discriminated against for many reasons also. They were discriminated against because they