What Are The Reasons For The Rise Of Immigration To America

The rise of American cities occurred because of many reasons. Some of the reasons as to why American cities rapidly grew was because of an increase in industries, which attracted immigrants from all over the world. Many cultural changes occurred because of these developments, including an increase in education, job opportunities for women and also an increase in poverty. In the collection, The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans As Told by Themselves edited by Hamilton Holt, early 20th century immigrants reflected on their experience as immigrants coming to America. The stories from these immigrants and the characters in Stephen Crane’s book, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets reflects the developments that occurred at the turn of the 20th
One immigrant story that stood out to me, was called, “The Life Story of the Polish Sweatshop Girl”. In this story, a mother and daughter from Poland, immigrated to the United States because they were living in poverty and America gave them the opportunity to make the best living for themselves. They immigrated to New York City, and the daughter, Sadie Frowne, went to school so she could learn to speak the English language. It should be noted that, many immigrants at that time were offered a proper education through settlement houses. Settlement houses were founded by Jane Addams and offered literacy classes, craft classes and job training. They were meant to assimilate immigrants into American culture. Frowne reflects on her decision to go to school when she says, “It is good to have an education; it makes you feel higher” (Frowne 45. In this sense, she is going to school so she can feel empowered in American society. Later on, in Frowne’s life, she got a job working in a sweatshop. Even though she had a low salary working in the sweatshop factory, it was still huge for women to be working in general. If the industries had not developed, then Sadie Frowne would not have had an education and a job opportunity like she
For example, in American society today, people believe that immigrants are “stealing their jobs”. Meanwhile, a majority of immigrants are taking jobs that nobody wants. For example, most immigrants are dish-washers, cleaning ladies, and other low-paying jobs that no other American would even consider having as a job. In the article, “The Danger from Having Low-Skilled Immigrants: Not Having Them”, published by the New York Times, the writer, Eduardo Porter stresses the importance of having low-skilled immigrants in the workplace. In the article, it states, “If there is anything to fear, it is not a horde of less-educated workers ready to jump over the border. The United States’ main immigration problem, looking into the future, is that too few low-skilled immigrants may be willing to come”(Porter 5). I agree with this statement because the low-skilled immigrants that are crossing the borders, aren’t coming here to “steal jobs” they just want a job that can provide them with some source of income, and these immigrants also provide employers in the United States with cheap labor, which helps the economy. I feel like without these low-skilled workers, then the economy would deeply suffer because no native- born Americans are going to want the jobs that immigrants have. In my opinion, I