Land of Opportunity?
Asian and European communities immigrated to the United States for economic, political and social reasons. After 1848, when gold was discovered in California, many Chinese immigrated to the West Coast in search of riches. Furthermore, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad required a huge amount of manual labor. Chinese immigrants were largely responsible for the building of this massive undertaking to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Japanese immigrants came to the United States for work as well. Many also chose the West Coast because of its proximity to Asia.
A population boom in Europe resulted in many Europeans seeking a new homeland. As land became scarce and successive bad farming seasons occurred, European farmers picked up their families and moved to the United States. Between 1845 and 1855, 1.5 million Irish fled their country due to the Great Potato Famine. Farmers could not pay their taxes to the British government and families had little choice but to leave for new opportunities in America.
Russians also accounted for an influx of immigrants. Anti-Semitism was rampant in Russia as pogroms were organized against the Jewish community. Backed by government officials, these attacks forced many Jews to leave their homeland of Russia to seek refuge in the United States.
Many of the immigrants got off the boat at Ellis Island in New York near the Statue of Liberty, which was given to the United States by France in 1886. The Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892 and was controlled by the federal government. 15-year-old Annie Moore from Ireland was recorded as the first person admitted to Ellis Island. The government required all immigrants to undergo a physical examination; immigrants with diseases would be quarantined or deported. Once they left the station they moved throughout the country. Many moved near port cities and others moved to factory or mining towns where they found low-wage employment. Think about how native-born Americans might react to the influx of immigrants.
Most of the immigrants from Asian countries such as China and Japan entered the United States at Western port cities like San Francisco, where a Chinese population had already settled.
In 1902, the Newlands National Reclamation Act provided funds for the construction of dams, canals, and reservoirs in the West so that acres of desert would become fertile land for crops in Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This attracted immigrants from Mexico in search of work.