"This is the city of dreamers and time and again it's the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed. "
Michael Bloomberg
Immigrants Make A Way Towards America
Land in Europe became too scarce due to the amount of people that were currently living there. Simultaneously there were savage persecutions of minority groups in Europe. This caused for a great transoceanic surge. Compared to previous immigration, new immigrants were now coming to American in search of a new start. Italians, Jews, Greeks, Croatians were just a few of the unfamiliar immigrants to America. These groups came from undemocratic countries where opportunities were scarce. Some groups wanted to assimilate into society while others fought the American culture.
Immigrant Work Force
Immigrants who came to America were a cheap labor source. States were happy to fill their states with working people who they didn't have pay high wages for.The railroads wanted people to buy their land grants and steamship lines wanted more human cargo. Steamships alone benefited from the transoceanic surge. A cheaper labor source helped the American economy. On an economic level America benefited from the new immigrants. Unfortunately not all immigrants planned to stay in America or become Americans. The "birds of passage", were those who would return back to their native home after working for a few years in the U.S.
Anti Immigration
As time went on groups began to resent immigrants, particularly the "Know Nothings". They were a group of Nativists. These people favored American born citizens and they used propaganda in an attempt to convince the public to be against immigration as well. Most Nativists did not like that the immigrants would work for almost any price thus forcing the American to fight for a job. The immigrants were also trying to live the "American Dream" or at least what they believed that dream to be. Immigrants were not well educated and predominantly lived in small areas where they spoke their native language and practiced their religion closely to others of their decent, this angered the Nativists. Also, immigrants brought in outside diseases into the country. The cartoon on the left shows a immigrant carrying things like poverty and disease and he is walking to Uncle Sam. This shows the resentment for immigrants in America and how Nativists believed immigrants brought in damaging things to society. The picture below shows Uncle Sam looking down upon the crowd of immigrants who all are holding things that show their native heritage. The little politition in the picture pointing to the crowd of immigrants, symbolizing the blame Americans placed upon the immigrants. However there still were groups who wanted immigrants to come to American and assimilate into society easily. They set up systems that would help accommodate immigrants when they came to America. Later, in 1907, the Immigration Commission was created to handle only immigration affairs. Eventually Immigrants had to go through extensive exams before being allowed into America.
Settlement Houses
All though there was much anti-foreignism, some made attempts to help immigrants assimilate into the American Society. Settlement houses were created in cities to educate immigrants and also provide a type of fraternity. These houses would also supply day-cares so the immigrants could go to work while their children were sought after. Many women were the head of these settlement houses, supporting women's activism. Jane Addams was the founder of the Hull House, a very well know settlement house. Jane was a part of the first generation of college educated women. Another woman named Lillian Wald opened the Henry Street Settlement House, in New York, following in Addams's path.
Preservation of Culture
Some groups of immigrants tried to preserve their culture when they came to America while others tried to assimilate into the American society. Those who wanted to maintain their culture set up their own "towns" such as "Little Italy" and "Little Poland". This was a way to keep the same kind of people together and kept cultural separation between those immigrants and native Americans. Immigrants would establish their own schools such as Catholic and Hebrew schools. They also set up native restaurants. However often the second generation of kids would be fluent in English and mock their parents in an attempt to become more Americanized. Immigrants would live in close quarters and in rural areas. For example, when the Irish came to American they often lived in ghettos and lived in poverty. The urbanization of America, allowed the immigrants to find a sort of home, no matter how minimal that home was. The immigrants could live close to their work where they would often work in factories. Urbanization helped maintain a workforce in urban cities.
Evolution Shakes Religion
Charles Darwin revealed a theory that opposed the biblical story of creation in Genesis. He claimed that there was a "natural selection" meaning that "strong" organisms will evolve and remain over time while the "weak" organisms will not evolve and eventually die off in his book, The Origin of Species. This shook the biblical culture at the time, people began to question which they believed the story of creation or science. Most importantly it showed a theme that in the work place or the difference between rich people and poor people was because of the organism's ability to adapt and evolve. Those who were poor were poor because they could not adapt in order to survive and prosper.
The video above explains Darwin's theory of Natural Selection and also gives a brief background on his life.