Ava Marzo

Mr. Windenhofer
AP United States History
January 16, 2017

Long Essay

The experience of the New immigration in the late 19th century was highly similar to the

Old Immigration before 1880 in regards to discrimination, motives to immigrate, and political

influence. However, the New Immigration and Old Immigration differed in regards to Religion,

Economic status, literacy rates, and the scale and location they were coming from therefore

making the prompt only partially valid. America was the place to live out the life you wanted to

achieve the “American Dream”. This was an option here due to its economic successes with the

influx of people moving from country to cities, and the high demand for jobs in the booming

factories, the second industrial Revolution gave purpose to the people who were searching for

work. the large scale of immigration in regards to America’s economic successes made the

united states a powerhouse hard to ignore.

There were many similarities between the New Immigration of the 19th century and the

Old Immigration. One similarity was that they both faced large amounts of discrimination. The

Old Immigrants of Chinese and Irish origin faced hate in the workplace of the railroad and had a

anti-immigration group rise up against them. This was the Know-Nothing Party, an they ran for

office and were in favor of stopping immigrants and deporting many. The New immigrants faced

similar hate. The Italians, Jews, and Polish were predominantly catholic. this led to a group

known as the American Protective Association to grow in popularity. This group, while not a

political party advocated against people who were catholic, making it hard for these groups to

succeed. they also both had similar motives for coming to America. The Old Immigrants had the

Irish and Chinese who were in search of new jobs, and the Germans who wanted cheap land to
farm on. They came so they could love better loves than before. The New Immigrants came for

the same reasons. They were in search of new jobs, cheap land, and wanted to escape the social

class they were rooted in before. Both of there waved of immigration were also similar in regards

to their political influences. The Old Immigrants were used in elections for patronage voting to

sway the sides. With the New immigrants many were swayed in voting because of Tammany

Hall. This powerful system swayed the voting of new immigrants because thy had power over

their provisions. Overall, there were many similarities between the New Immigrants and the Old

Immigrants.

On the contrary though, there were many differences between the New Immigration and

the Old Immigration. Both of these groups differed in their religions. Many of the Old

immigrants were primarily protestant, which was primarily the religion already in existence in

America. The New Immigrants on the other hand of Italians and Polish were predominantly

catholic. This caused there to be some tensions, and as a result the American Protective

Association formed. These groups also differed in economic status. The Irish, Chinese, and

Germans of the Old Immigration were wealthier. Many had the ability to purchase farms and

have a confortahbe living for themselves. the New Immigration though were primarily dirt poor.

They had little money and took the worst jobs of mining and factory work because they had no

other money, and no other choice. These groups also differed in their literacy rates . The Old

Immigrants were primarily able to read and write and speak the english language. The New

Immigrants on the other hand were primarily illiterate and even if they could read of write, it was

only in their native language, not English. Lastly, both the New Immigration and the Old

Immigration differed in location and scale. the Old Immigrants had come from predominantly

western and northern Europe and during the peak only 1,000 people were entering per day. On
the contrary the New Immigrants came from souther and eastern Europe and during its peak had

roughly 5,000 immigrants entering per day. Overall, there were many differences between nOld

and New Immigration.

Continuing, this great influx of people was caused by the amount of economic

opportunity in the US, but had many nativists concerned. The concerned finally overruled. The

immigration had slowed around 1914 with the start of WWI, but by 1921 Emergency Quota Act

was passed as well was the National Origins Act. With the scare of communism high in people’s

minds they tried to limit the amount of people entering from Southern and Eastern Europe. This

diminished the influx of immigration greatly.

Overall, the experience of Old Immigration and New Immigration were highly similar

but also had many differences, making the prompt only partially valid.