Immigration During the Industrial Revolution

Immigration during the Industrial Revolution Immigration was a huge part of the industrial revolution, some migrated legal, some illegal. Either way, many immigrants came to the United States searching for a dream, the American dream to be precise. This leads to the question; Why did people immigrate to America? There can be many answers to this question, but some of the most important answers are: political, others economic, while yet others religious, whatever the case was, the United States became a mix of different cultures.

However, the main reason for immigration was because of the “Industrial Revolution” Industrial Revolution is basically the changes in industry from the 18th century to the 19th century that started in Britain and then other Western European countries and spread to the Unites States. Without the growth in Industry however, Many Immigrants cannot migrate to the United States. For example without the technology improvements in shipbuilding, many ships could not make it past the long journey through the ocean.

The industrial revolution gave many Immigrants the chance to travel to the United States where they were able to get jobs working in railroads, factories, potato picking, or any other jobs industries enabled them to do. In the 1750’s, most people in Europe lived on small farms and made most of their needs by hand. As the industrial revolution started, many people lived in cities and most of their needs were produced by complicated machines. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and spread to Belgium, France, Germany, the United States and Japan.

It was an important change in the way goods were produced, and improved the way people lived. The Industrial Revolution is a major turning point in world history. I’m sure by now you are asking What caused industrial revolution? Agricultural Revolution or farming revolution was a change in farming methods that allowed greater production of food. This huge change was caused by the use of new farming technology such as seed drill (Machine that plants seeds) and improved fertilizers. The outcome of this farming change was higher access of food.

The enclosure Movement also forced people into Industrial Revolution for example; farmers who worked in the farming industry where replaced by farming machines and where left homeless forced to find new jobs in the industrial revolution. Big business was also a change that created Mass Production. Mass Production shifted people from production at home, to production in large factories in cities. Mass production also allowed for lower prices on the good produced. In 1892, the government made an immigration station on Ellis Island, in a bay between New York and Jersey City, New Jersey.

Every day, hundreds or even thousands of people arrived by boat and pass through inspections as they arrived, potential immigrants were escorted through a quick health exam. As immigrants climbed up a set of stairs, officials watched for symptoms of illnesses, heavy breathing, and signs of mental disturbances. These were indications that the person might not be able to find or maintain a job. Doctors then gave a “six second physical” and checked for diseases, including a contagious eye infection called trachoma.

Sick people were sent to a hospital on Ellis Island to be treated, and escorted through the same immigration process again. After the physical checkup, potential immigrants were asked a series of questions by immigration inspectors. Life as an immigrant in the U. S was not all that great. First, they had to learn English for many immigrants; they had to put up with going to school and at the same time working which was very exhausting in a situation like this. No one put up signs or notices in other languages for them. This is why learning English was the most important process.

Then, they had to get work, because the government didn’t give money to anyone. They had to earn it themselves! No one cut them any breaks if you were a different nationality. The Italians and Irish were especially subject to cruelty and where paid less sometimes because of their nationality. Swedish and German immigrants: many of these made their way to Wisconsin and Minnesota. They established dairy farms, in particular, and also grew wheat. In this part of the country, there are hundreds of Lutheran churches that they founded, as most of these immigrants were, if not Lutheran, Protestants.

In conclusion, many immigrants migrated to the United States for various reasons and went through the hardest situations to live the American dream. Some immigrants where successful and managed to live their dreams as an American but others struggled through the hardest situations and went through cruelty and discrimination. All of this was caused by nothing more than the changes in the industrial revolution and the huge impact on many people that had to migrate to places like cities to not be affected by this change.