Free And Forced Migration In The 19th Century

Free and Forced Migration Free and forced migration to and within different parts of North America caused regional development, cultural diversity and blending, and also political and social conflict throughout the nineteenth century. The “old immigrants” during the 19th century were the irish, german, and some chinese, after the civil war the “new immigrants” were from southern and eastern Europe from the time period of the 1880s until 1924. These immigrants were brought or forced to the US because of wars in Europe, famine, and disease. These new immigrants congregated in ethnic urban neighborhoods, where they worried many native-born Americans, some of whom responded with nativist anti-immigrant campaigns and others of whom introduced urban reforms to help the immigrants assimilate. Throughout the whole US, the far west was affected the most. Immigrants would take on the roles of miners, cattle ranchers, and soldiers that would help disperse the native Americans. During the boom in industry in the US, many immigrants helped work on …show more content…
Some people reacted against the immigrants out of generalized fears and prejudices, seeing in their "foreignness" the source of all the disorder and corruption of the urban world. Labor unions were formed to protect the immigrants from being replaced by scabs, but instances such as the Haymarket Square bombing, cast a negative shadow on the immigrants, especially the “new immigrants. One Chicago newspaper even wrote, “"These people are not American, but the very scum and offal of Europe ... Europe's human and inhuman