United Province Immigration

The United Province’s economy during the Golden Age of the United Provinces is a shining example of positive impacts from immigration. “There was an extraordinary volume of property, materials, good and services on the market, all available at a moment’s notice.”2 Important contributors to Amsterdam’s seemingly endless abundance of goods and capital were indeed immigrants seeking both economic opportunity and asylum. “Among the stream of refugees—French Protestants, [those from Antwerp], Jews from Spain and Portugal—were many merchants, often in possession of substantial capital. The Sephardic Jews in particular contributed to Holland’s fortune.”3 Not only were these immigrants contributing to Dutch society from the commercial class of merchants, but also from the manufacturing and lower classes as well. Leading twentieth century French historian Fernand Braudel points to two specific examples of these contributions thusly:
Workers from Ypres and Hondschoote [modern day areas of Belgium and France, respectively] were responsible for the textile boom in Haarlem. And in the late seventeenth century, the industry of the entire United Provinces was given a considerable boost by the massive invasion of French Huguenots [religious …show more content…
Another example of positive consequences of liberal immigration policy in America is Chinese immigration during the gold rush and industrial revolution. Many Chinese immigrated to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century to take part in California’s gold rush. Speaking on an ancestor’s experience, author Erika Lee writes:
A twenty year old farmer from Sun Jock Mee village in the Pearl River delta of southern China, he arrived in California in 1854, with big dreams of Gum Saan, or Gold Mountain, as the Chinese called the United