Through Ellis Island and Angel Island: The Immigrant Experience
Section 2—Why Immigrants Emigrated to the United States
Lazarus's poem suggests that the United States was a land of opportunity for the world's poor and
downtrodden masses. By the 1880s, this had already been true for decades. Great waves of immigration
had washed over the country since at least the 1840s. Some immigrants who chose to come to the
United States were from Asia, Mexico, and Canada, but the vast majority crossed the Atlantic Ocean
from Europe. They entered the country mainly through the port of New York City.
From the 1840s until the 1890s, most of these Europeans came from northern and western Europe.
Millions of Irish, British, Germans, and Scandinavians crossed the ocean to become Americans. In the
late 1800s, however, immigration from southern and eastern Europe steadily increased. Italians,
Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, and Russians began to dominate the steamship passenger lists. For all of
these immigrants, the reasons for moving can be divided into push factors and pull factors. Push
factors are problems that cause people to move, whereas pull factors are attractions that draw them to
another place.
Difficulties Push People from Europe Population growth and hunger were two major push factors
that caused Europeans to emigrate, or
leave their homeland. Much of Europe
experienced rapid population growth
in the 1800s. This growth resulted in
crowded cities, a lack of jobs, and food
shortages. Crop failures added to
people's woes. Potato rot left many
Irish starving in the 1840s. The Irish
potato famine led to a wave of Irish
emigration to the United States.
Another push factor was the scarcity of
arable land, or land suitable for
growing crops. In the 1800s, the
mechanization of agriculture led to the
growth of commercial farming on
large tracts of land in Europe. In the
process, common lands, traditionally
available to all, were combined and
enclosed by fences. Many peasants were suddenly thrown off the land and into poverty. Even families
with large estates faced land shortages. In parts of Europe, landholdings were divided among all
children at the death of their parents. After a few generations of such divisions, the resulting plots were
too small to support a family. A hunger for land drove many Europeans across the Atlantic.
Some immigrants planned to go to the United States, make their fortune, and return to their homelands.
Others had no wish to go back. Many of those people emigrated because of the fourth major push
factor: religious persecution. Russian and Polish Jews, for example, fled their villages to escape deadly
attacks by people who abhorred their religion. Lazarus wrote her Statue of Liberty poem with this
group of immigrants in mind. Lazarus had heard stories told by Jewish refugees from Russia. They
described the pogroms, or organized anti-Jewish attacks, that had forced them to leave their country.
Armenian immigrants, many of them Catholics, told similar stories about persecution and massacres at
the hands of Turks in the largely Muslim Ottoman Empire.
Opportunities Pull Europeans to the United
States One of the great pull factors for European
immigrants was the idea of living in a free and
democratic society. They longed to live in a country
where they had the opportunity to achieve their
dreams. Less abstract, or more concrete, factors
such as natural resources and jobs also exerted a
strong pull.
The United States had ample farmland, minerals,
and forests. Germans, Scandinavians, and eastern
Europeans brought their farming skills to the rolling
hills and plains of the Midwest. They introduced
new types of wheat and other grains that would help
turn this region into the country's breadbasket.
European immigrants also prospected for gold and
silver. They mined iron and coal. They chopped
down forests and sawed the trees into lumber.
Booming industries offered jobs to unskilled
workers, like the Irish, Italian, Polish, and
Hungarian peasants who poured into the cities in the
late 1800s. These new immigrants also worked on
the ever-expanding rail system, sometimes replacing
Irish and Chinese laborers. American railroad companies advertised throughout Europe. They offered
glowing descriptions of the Great Plains, hoping to sell land they received as government grants.
An even greater lure, however, came in the form of personal communications from friends and
relatives who had already immigrated. Their letters back to the old country, known as American
letters, might be published in newspapers or read aloud in public places. Sometimes the letters
overstated the facts. Europeans came to think of the United States as the "land of milk and honey" and
a place where the "streets are paved with gold." American letters helped persuade many people to
immigrate to the United States.
Improvements in Transportation Make Immigration Easier After the Civil War, most European
immigrants crossed the Atlantic by steamship, a technological advance over sailing ships. What had
once been a three-month voyage now took just two weeks. Some passengers could afford cabins in the
more comfortable upper decks of the ship. But most had to settle for steerage, the open area below the
main deck. In steerage, hundreds of strangers were thrown together in huge rooms, where they slept in
rough metal bunks. The rolling of the ship often made them ill. Seasickness, spoiled food, and filthy
toilets combined to create an awful stench. During the day, steerage passengers crowded onto the main
deck for fresh air.
Directions: Below, create a sensory figure by completing at least four sensory statements around the
appropriate photograph. Use arrows to point to what feature you are using for your writing. Sensory
statements describe what immigrants might have experienced or felt through any of their senses. Base your
statements on information from the reading in each section. Be sure to include the vocab from this section
in your statements.