Immigration to America

Immigration is a world-wide issue today, but it is not new. Throughout human history, people have been migrating to other places. This movement of people has always fascinated me. One particular migration of people has been of most interest to me, and that is across the Atlantic to America that began long before 1776 when this country was founded. As a descendant of a passenger on the Mayflower on the paternal side and the granddaughter of a Czechoslovakian-born naturalized citizen on the maternal side, I am the proud and appreciative product of immigration. And I am not alone. Most Americans today are descendants of immigrants who withstood brutal conditions as they crossed the Atlantic.

On board an emigrant ship - 

the breakfast bell immigrants on ship deck, 

1884, Library of Congress Prints and 

Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 

USA, LC-USZ62-60319

I believe America owes much to the millions of immigrants who have come to this country. They have given their raw labor to build the infrastructure that is the foundation of our nation: the canals, the railroads, the roads. Although the jobs available to new arrivals have changed through the decades and the centuries, the contributions of immigrants have always been essential to the strength of America. Let’s take a look at what conditions cause immigration. Why did Europeans, starting in the 1600s, emigrate to the Americas? 

From reading Marcus L. Hansen’s book The Atlantic Migration  and from ideas formed over years of reading about immigration to America, I have reached several conclusions. The reasons for emigration were mainly economic (worsened by population growth), but people also left their birth countries seeking to avoid religious persecution and forced conscription. I discussed the “push” and “pull” factors that influence the movement of people in my post of April 19,2014.

“Descriptive portraiture of Europe in storm and calm….,”  

Edward King, 1886, C.A. Nichols, 

Springfield, MA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/

internetarchivebookimages/14595849259/ 

The economic push factors first centered around agriculture. For much of the time that humans have been on this earth, raising crops has been the main way of survival. And anyone who has tried to grow a garden can attest to the effect weather has on the harvest. For thousands of years, people have been at the mercy of the elements as they try to grow enough food to pay the landlord and feed their own families. Droughts, floods, insect infestations, worn-out soil and other natural events have brought devastation and starvation and driven people to seek new land.

It was not until the 18^th century with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in England that the majority of the population would become less dependent on farming for their livelihood. The Industrial Revolution caused a shift in the economic paths people took to sustain their families. Although agriculture remained paramount to the sustenance of most people, small cottagers benefited from advances in transportation to increase markets for their hand crafts (spinning, weaving, knitting) to supplement what they could raise on their small parcels of land.

Irish spinner and spinning wheel.
County Galway, Ireland,
between 1890 and 1900,
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, 

Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Mechanization slowly developed and factories began pulling people from their homes.

Walton, Perry, The Story of Textiles, 1912,
 J.S. Lawrence, Boston, MA, p. 166-A

The movement of poor peasants to factory work did not relieve their poverty (due to low wages) and overcrowding in urban areas led to the spread of disease. The health and life expectancy of the new factory workers suffered from conditions brought about by mechanization, including exposure in enclosed spaces to air full of toxins from textile production and injuries from machines. As we have seen, poor economic conditions played a big part in the urge for people to look for opportunities somewhere else. 

From the early 1600s through the early 1900s, the “New World” (as it seemed to the Europeans) functioned as a safety valve for people from Europe who were fleeing the situations caused by the events mentioned above. Other things also “pushed” people to leave their birth countries. These include the intermittent warring between European countries that made daily living for people precarious: food shortages, more taxes to pay for military activity, and forced conscription were factors that encouraged emigration.

“Descriptive portraiture of Europe
in storm and calm….,”
  Edward King, 1886, C.A. Nichols,
Springfield, MA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/
internetarchivebookimages/14595830779/

The lack of religious freedom was one other push factor that led people to leave Europe and sail across the Atlantic to America. 

This discussion of push and pull factors leads us to ponder how emigration affects both the sending (home) country and the receiving  (destination) country. The effects of immigration (economic, cultural, social) on America is right now and historically has been the cause of heated debate and sometimes violent protests all the way back to colonial times. In a post from July 9, 2014, I discussed the anti-immigrant movement symbolized by the Know Nothing Party  which was born and became popular at a time of high immigration of poor, unskilled Catholics from Ireland.

 How American-born or even many naturalized citizens feel about new immigrants often stems from fear of the outsider: will our language/culture be lost, will our society be taken over by foreigners, will our jobs be lost?  What never seems to enter the equation are two factors. First, history has shown that the children of immigrants nearly always embrace this country with its language, culture and government as their own. Second, the immigrant generation provides labor for jobs that many native Americans do not want.

Know-nothingism in Brooklyn, 1881, Illus. in: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper,

 vol. 51 (1881 Jan. 15), p. 340, 

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs 

Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

America has been eager to accept immigrant labor for more than three centuries, but many Americans have not been as willing to welcome them into the fabric of our society. Joseph Connor wrote an excellent article in "American History Magazine,"¹ chronicling American sentiment toward immigrants since our nation began. Connor shows that the American people’s vacillating  relationship with immigration often coincides with economic shifts in the economy. This view is corroborated by Eytan Meyers in his study² of immigration policy, where he states that laws restricting immigration were passed during the recession of 1882-1885 and again during the depression of 1891-1897.

Politicians and others have long tried to understand and sway public opinion. And one of the best ways to grab the public’s attention is through images. With the advent of newspapers and magazines, would-be movers and shapers of popular belief found a successful tool in the art of political cartooning. The political cartoon also functions on the back end to capture the prevailing mood of the citizenry, actually responding to the public’s attitude to many things, including immigration, at different points in our history.

Joseph Connor included two political cartoons in his piece that clearly show how public opinion on immigration parallels economic downturns. One can ask several questions of these cartoons. Do they convey just the opinions of the artist? Does the artist attempt to capture the widespread feelings/fears/beliefs of the day? Is the artist conveying the opinions of one political party or another? Is the artist simply portraying the feeling of the publication paid for his/her work?

The title of the first cartoon, “Columbia's Unwelcome Guests” gives us a big clue as to the sentiment behind the drawing. Frank Beard was the illustrator, and the cartoon was published in 1885 by Judge Magazine at the tail end of a four year recession. In the drawing, Mr. Beard depicts multitudes of immigrants from the sewers of Germany, Russia, and Italy pouring across the Atlantic and breaching our shores. As you can see from the labels he places on the newcomers, (Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Dynamiters) Beard shows them threatening the law and order of America.

'Columbia's Unwelcome Guests.' American cartoon by Frank Beard, 

1885, showing unrestricted U.S. immigration policies

 encouraging the arrival of anarchists, socialists, 

and the Mafia from the sewers of Italy, Russia, 

and Germany; used by permission under  2019 

The Granger Collection LTD d/b/a Granger Academic.

The title of the second cartoon, “Where the Blame Lies” by Grant T. Hamilton is a not-so-subtle condemnation of immigrants also. It was published in 1891, (the beginning of a seven-year depression) in Judge Magazine. Hamilton goes a bit further in his name-calling as he links political movements, crime and poverty to certain nationalities: German Socialist, Russian Anarchist, Italian Vagabond, English Convict, and Irish Pauper. Perhaps the saddest part of the cartoon is the Statue of Liberty is pictured in the background.

Hamilton, Grant E., Artist. Where the blame lies / Hamilton. 

Castle Clinton New York United States, 1891. 

New York: Sackett & Wilhelms Litho. Co., 

April 4. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/97515495/.

In conclusion, humans have been on the move for centuries. Many reasons spur this movement, and we have mentioned some of the major ones in this post in our discussion of immigration to this country. Throughout its history, America has been the beneficiary of the labor and the many other contributions that newcomers bring. Let us never forget this.