New Immigration in the 1880s
New Immigration in the 1880s
New Immigration began in the 1880s and lasted until the early 1900s. The reasons for the migratory movements were the close of the frontier and the forcible restriction of America’s native population to reservations. The main reason was due to the industrial growth experienced by the United States from the end of the Civil War. The majority of the immigrants were Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox or Jewish. Italians came in the greatest numbers, with Jews second. Violence against Jews in Russia was a major factor in their emigration after 1881. Poles, Russians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, and other Slavs made up one quarter of the new immigration. Poles made up the largest number of people in the Slavic category and had over one million immigrants in the United States before the World War I. Asian people also entered after 1880. Some other factors of migration was interest groups in the United States encouraged it. By 1882 fare from England to the United States was between $12 and $15, which was often paid by a relative who had already made the voyage. There were also political and cultural reasons for emigrating such as conscription, denial of cultural or religious rights, and political persecution. By 1897, steamship travel to the United States was cut to five and a half days, compared to forty-four days by sailing vessel in 1850. Another distinguishing feature of much of the “new immigration” was that it was mostly males between the ages of fourteen and forty-four years old. The number of immigrants to the United States in the years of 1881-90 were 5,246,613, 1891-1900 were 3,687,564, 1901-10 were 8,795,386, and 1911-20 were 5,735,811.
The widely used receiving center for them was Castle Garden, on the Southern tip of Manhattan. This receiving center allowed the United States Government to keep better track of its immigrants. Clerks would record the names, nationalities, and destinations of immigrants. Doctors would give routine check ups and physicals to make sure that the immigrants were healthy.
In 1890 construction of the buildings on Ellis Island began, and it took nearly ten years to be completed. Even though Ellis Island was one of seventy receiving stations in the country at the time, it handled ninety percent of all immigrants.
In 1893 several laws were expanded and refined. Ships carrying passengers with contagious or...