Hardship and Opportunity Fueled Immigration
Grade 8 students learn how millions of immigrants came to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries driven by push factors like famine, poverty, and persecution in their home countries, and pull factors like economic opportunity, political freedom, and affordable land. Most settled in urban tenements and faced discrimination. This topic is in California myWorld Interactive Grade 8, Chapter 8: Industrial and Economic Growth.
Key Concepts
In the mid 1800s, millions of European immigrants arrived in the United States, driven by a combination of circumstances. Historians describe these circumstances using the concepts of push factors , which are problems that cause people to leave their home country, and pull factors , which are attractions that draw people to a new country.
For many immigrants from Ireland, the primary push factor was the Great Famine, a period of mass starvation caused by a blight that destroyed their potato crops. In the German states, many people fled to escape the political turmoil and violence that followed a series of failed revolutions in 1848.
Common Questions
Why did immigrants come to the United States in the late 1800s?
Immigrants were pushed from their home countries by famine, poverty, religious persecution, and political instability, while being pulled to America by promises of economic opportunity, religious freedom, and affordable land.
What push and pull factors caused immigration to the U.S.?
Push factors included famines like the Irish Potato Famine, poverty, and persecution; pull factors included industrial jobs, cheap farmland, political freedom, and the promise of a better life.
What challenges did immigrants face in America?
Most immigrants faced cramped tenement housing, dangerous factory jobs, low wages, language barriers, and discrimination from native-born Americans who feared competition for jobs.
What chapter covers immigration in California myWorld Interactive Grade 8?
Chapter 8: Industrial and Economic Growth (1865-1914) covers the causes and experiences of immigration to the U.S. in California myWorld Interactive, Grade 8.