Get New York Up Close Immigration And The Industrial Revolution

In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.

In the first few decades of the Great Wave, between 1840 and 1860, over 4 million people—a greater number than the entire national population in 1790—immigrated to the United States. The majority of these immigrants were from Ireland and Germany, with a significant number from Scandinavia.

In the transition period between the early to late industrialization, the rate of immigration rose dramatically and a great majority of immigrants were unskilled farmers, laborers and servants.

“Cities grew because industrial factories required large workforces and workers and their families needed places to live near their jobs. Factories and cities attracted millions of immigrants looking for work and a better life in the United States.”

With the growth of factories and the demand for unskilled labor, immigrants, primarily young men in the working years, continued to be the ideal source of labor. Immigrants were generally more willing to accept lower wages and inferior working conditions than native born workers (Zolberg 2006: 69).

The Industrial Revolution brought important changes to America. People began migrating to cities for work, and immigrants began to arrive in American in larger numbers than ever before as they looked for new employment opportunities.

Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.

The Industrial Revolution shifted from an agrarian economy to a manufacturing economy where products were no longer made solely by hand but by machines. This led to increased production and efficiency, lower prices, more goods, improved wages, and migration from rural areas to urban areas.