Our Opinion
From the late 1800s to the early 1900s more and more people from foreign countries decided to immigrate to the US. The reason was they were not happy with their living conditions. Some came because the US was perceived as the land of economic opportunity for many were without jobs. A lot of immigrants were in poverty and came with the “get rich quick” mentality. Many others came hoping for religious freedom. From 1870-1900 12 million immigrants came to the US. In the beginning the majority of immigrants came from Germany, Ireland, and England. But over the next few decades there were immigrants from many other countries as well. Immigrants from Europe generally traveled through the east coast, where immigrants from Asia traveled through the west coast. On the east coast was Ellis island off New York, and the west was Angel island which was off San Francisco. Everyday the population grew major cities, which led to major over crowding. This meant living conditions became very poor and life became even harder for Americans.
Immigrants tended to move to big cities because that's where all the jobs were. They usually didn't have much money and lived in tenements, which were small rooms. Most often they would be living with other families. With all of the people living in such a small area this only made the living conditions worse. Many people couldn't find jobs so that made the crime rate rise immensely. So crime rates were up, sanitation was poor, and there wasn't enough food and water. The “natives” where not very fond of the new immigrants because they felt they would take all of the jobs because they were willing to work for less money. One of the major affects the immigrants had on the US was they made it harder for the people who previously lived here. They made sanitation worse and crime rate went up.
A lot of people would say that immigrants are doing bad things to our country, by taking our jobs. The jobs that most of them are taking the hard labor that no one else wants. They can also be valuable to our society. They can have many good talents to offer as well. People who discriminate against immigrants are being very hypocritical. All of our ancestors were immigrants unless you are Native American. We tend to discriminate only against the biggest group immigrating at the time. The way we only we discriminative against the Chinese in the Chinese exclusion act. Another reason that the Chinese were discriminated against was they were physically different than the Europeans.
In conclusion we believe that immigration was a good thing. Most of us would not be here as Americans today if it weren't for the immigrants back then and even more recently. Even though it was ultimately a good thing, it made for very poor living conditions for a while. It caused a lot of uncontrollable fires because all the crowding and close buildings for the excessive need of housing. Overall immigrants were a very good thing and we would literally not be here today if it weren't for our brave ancestors.
-"Immigration to the United States - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress." Immigration to the United States - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
-"Immigration in the Early 1900s."
Immigration in the Early 1900s. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpim1.htm>.