Immigration Impact of Immigration on Jacksonian America

Immigration

Impact of Immigration on Jacksonian America

In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more than one-half of the population of Ireland immigrated to the United States. So did an equal number of Germans. Most of them came because of civil unrest, severe unemployment or almost inconceivable hardships at home. This wave of immigration affected almost every city and almost every person in America. From 1820 to 1870, over seven and a half million immigrants came to the United States, more than the entire population of the country in 1810. Nearly all of them came from northern and western Europe about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany (U.S. History.org, 2011).

Discussion

During the early nineteenth century millions of people left their homes and headed to America in search of a new life. Many of these people immigrated from Ireland and Germany, coming through New York harbor, first seeing the Statue of liberty, and then first setting foot on American soil at Ellis Island. These immigrants had diverse motives, places they settled, impacts on our culture, and reception by native-born Americans.

German immigrants during the early 1800s began coming to the United States in greater numbers in search of freedom. After the Napoleonic Wars many people sought freedom from military involvement and political oppression. Some also came for religious freedom. Almost two million Irish immigrants arrived in America in the 1840s. At this time they came to America because of the potato famine which left thousands starving and homeless.

When they arrived in America the immigrants went in search of new places to settle down. Most German immigrants headed toward the west, settling predominately in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They tended to become farmers.

On the other hand most Irish immigrants did not have enough money when they arrived to move west, so they tended to settled in the cities of the northeast such as in Boston, New York, and other New England cities.

Though both of these populations had large impacts on our culture, their reception by the people already established in the United States was quite different. The Germans were mostly accepted, becoming farmers, bakers, butchers and tailors and entrepreneurs. The Irish were not as well received and had difficulty finding employment. Because of these things the Irish took jobs no one else wanted, they are responsible for much of building most of the infrastructure during that period.