The New Immigrants In The 19th Century

Immigration has always been a factor in America, the first people to land in America in as early as the 10th and 11th century were Immigrants. Immigration began building America especially in the 19th century when Immigrants from all over the world began to come to here for economic opportunities and religious freedom. These people were known as the ‘Old Immigrants”, the majority of these said immigrants were from Northern or Western Europe. They were the first mass wave of immigration to come to american shores in a hope for a better life. After that came the ‘New Immigrants” these people primarily came from the Southern of Eastern Europe and Asia. Both these new and old immigrants in America faced many trials such as a lengthy journey, Nativism and, social prejudice.
The journey for most Immigrants was a long one across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans just to begin their new lives.
Unlike today there were no airplanes or fancy ships to bring these people to America; all they had were steamboats, at the time this made travel much safer and faster, but nothing like today. For many Immigrants all they brought with them from home was what was essential and they could carry such as cloth, a passport and, a picture or item of their families. After finally getting on the boat and taking such a long journey to America these immigrants were faced with Ellis Island. Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor that was an immigration hub for anyone arriving in America. Ellis Island decided a lot for these Immigrants, it was the deciding factor whether you could start a new life in America or will you be sent back to your country of origin. At Ellis Island, immigrants had to show they were healthy, had enough money to live, had something to contribute such as a skill in a profession and, a
sponsor. Once these immigrants made it into America they faced their next major trial which was Nativism. Nativism is the belief that native-born white Americans are superior to newcomers. This nativism plagued the lives of almost all immigrants because they were faced with people belittling them and telling them they were nothing compared to them. This affected immigrants especially in reference to jobs, these immigrants during times of hardships would be denied access to jobs by business owners because they were thought inferior to the American people who’ve lived here longer. Nativism had its controversies because the majority of the people who abided by this code of conduct were immigrants themselves, this didn't stop them though. During this time of Nativism, there was almost a trickling down effect in regards to immigrants; this believe could be compared to hazing that plagues school sports today, much like the players already on the team these immigrants would compete with newcomers simply because they were the new wave of people being integrated into society. After that, new immigrants would come to the country and the past immigrants being discriminated would join up with other nativists and discriminate these newly immigrated people, this created a cycle that would endure for many years. Lastly, these immigrants faced social prejudice much like nativism except it would target toward the chinese immigrants. These chinese immigrants were thought to be working for lower wages than most other immigrants which lead to them being hated by everyone because people were terrified that they were taking all the jobs away from hard working Americans. Most of this thought process much like race protest today was false by misinformed informations or propaganda being portrayed in media. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, this act prohibited the immigration of chinese laborers. This act also limited the rights of the Chinese already living in America, along with removing the possibility of naturalization. The law lived on for many years even being renewed in 1902, the social prejudice toward would end till 1943 were Chinese immigrants were reinstated their right to obtain citizenship . Immigrants in America faced many challenges from the journey to get to America to being discriminated toward when they finally got here. The journey to America was a long and hard one, it had many variables that could make or break your plans for the future such as if you were rejected from an immigration hub, Ellis Island. Once these immigrants made it into the country they faced hardships such as Nativism. This nativism would end up trickling down and spread each time a new set of immigrants came into the country. Lastly, in some cases these immigrants were faced with social prejudices specifically the chinese: the hatred for chinese immigrants got so bad that the government banned them, looking back at this incident we see that it was primarily funded by propaganda and the fear of the people. The chinese tried to make their case that they were like everyone else but in the end were shut down till the 1943s during WWII.