The experience of the new immigrants in the late 19th century was little different from

the experience of preceding groups of immigrants to the United States. Assess the validity of
this statement.

In the mid-1800s, immigration to the US became quite common. The first groups of
immigrants to come were the Irish and German. Later, immigrants from multiple Eastern
European countries would come to America. The validity of this statement depends on the group
of immigrants. This statement is partially true because there were similarities and differences
between the treatments of the New and Old immigrants.
The Irish and the German began immigrating to America in the 1840s. The Germans,
who were mainly Protestant, were welcomed for the most part. They has enough money to
purchase land out west to start a farm. They blended into society and were able to start new lives.
For the Irish, however, this was not the case. Irish were mainly Catholic and were discriminated
as a result. The Irish were also very poor and lived in the coastal cities. They were unable to
move out west and had to work the unwanted jobs in order to make a living. The influx of Irish
caused a new political party to emerge. The Know-Nothing Party was a nativist party that wanted
to restrict immigration. They did not like the Irish Catholics and voted for stricter immigration
laws.
The New immigration began in the 1880s and consisted of people mainly from Eastern
Europe. Like the Irish, these people were poor and mainly Catholic. As a result, they were
discriminated against. Americans also did not like these immigrants because the ideas of
Communism, Socialism, and Anarchism were on the rise in Europe. Americans were afraid that
the immigrants would bring these ideas with them to America. This led to the creation the
American Protective Association. This group was a political group that voted against Catholics.
They did not want Catholics in the political system because they did not like what they believed
in and were afraid of Communism, Socialism, and Anarchism making its way into American
politics. Later, to limit immigrants, Emergency Quota Acts were put into effect that made literacy
requirements and other limitations for the immigrants.
Overall, immigration partially changed between the Old and New immigration. Old
immigrants like the Germans blended into society. They moved out west and lived good lives. An
exception to this were the Irish who were discriminated against. The New immigrants were
treated similarly to the Irish. However, without the poor Irish and Eastern Europeans, America
would not have prospered as much as it did during this time period.