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During the Gilded Age, there was increased urbanization, which is the movement of people to cities. This included both immigrants and internal migrants.
Factors That Drew Workers to Cities
New farm technology caused some farmers to lose their livelihoods. Thanks to industrialization, there were plenty of jobs in factories for unskilled workers. Tenements, apartment buildings known for their crowded living spaces and lack of hygiene, provided these workers with cheap, convenient places to live, although they were often dirty, dangerous, and overcrowded.
Push and Pull Factors for Immigrants
Immigrants were pushed to leave their home countries by famines, land shortages, and religious persecution. They were attracted, or pulled, to the United States by factory jobs, farmland in the West, and the relative freedom they could enjoy (compared to their home countries).
“New” Immigrants
After 1870, more immigrants began to come from China and from Southern and Eastern Europe. These “new” immigrants were perceived as being different from previous immigrants because they were more likely to be Catholic or Jewish, less likely to speak English, and often associated with political ideologies such as anarchism, socialism, or communism.
Ethnic Enclaves
Once immigrants arrived in the United States, they often lived in ethnic enclaves. These were culturally-distinct communities within urban areas where specific ethnic groups maintained ways of life that were separate from those of the larger community. For example, many cities have a “Chinatown” or “Little Italy” neighborhood. These communities tended to form due to new immigrants’ difficulty in adjusting to American ways of life. The period of adjustment was somewhat easier living near other people who shared one’s language and culture. Additionally, they were often formed in reaction to Americans’ hostility toward certain ethnic groups. Ethnic enclaves also provided economic opportunity for ethnic groups because the businesses that operated there were generally owned and operated by members of the community.
Responses to Immigration and Labor
Native-born, white Americans responded to this new immigration by promoting assimilation, Americanization, and nativism. Assimilation is the process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and modes of life of the prevailing culture. (This is the same concept that drove the treatment of Native Americans in the West.) The Americanization movement promoted activities that were designed to prepare foreign-born residents for full participation in citizenship. These aimed for the achievement of naturalization (the process of becoming an American citizen with, at the time, a minimum of five years of residence). This was perceived as an understanding of and commitment to the principles of American life and work.
Nativists promoted favoritism toward native-born white Americans and immigration restrictions. For example, native-born white workers in the West were suspicious of Chinese immigrants because they would accept lower wages and dangerous work. Congress responded with the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which banned entry to all Chinese except a few students, tourists, teachers, merchants, and government officials.
