Immigration and Urbanization

Using Evidence
Objective What was the relationship between industrialization, immigration, and urbanization
during the Gilded Age?

Directions: Review the four claims below. Find evidence for the four claims from the documents provided and
fill out the charts as prompted. Claim #1: Most immigrants that arrived in America during the Gilded Age came
from Western Europe.

● Find one piece of evidence to support this claim. Document your findings in the chart below.

Evidence Source Connect evidence to the claim

Claim #2: Industrialization in America was one of the pull factors for immigration to the United States among
European immigrants.

● Find evidence from two different sources to support this claim. Document your findings in the chart below.
Evidence Source Connect evidence to the claim

Claim #3: Both immigration and industrialization led to urbanization in America during the Gilded Age.

● Find evidence from two different sources to support this claim. Document your findings in the chart below.
Evidence Source Connect evidence to the claim
Claim #4: During the Gilded Age, urbanization, caused by immigration and industrialization, led to cities
struggling with basic infrastructure (ex: housing, water, sanitation).

● Find two pieces of evidence to support this claim. Document your findings in the chart below.
Evidence Source Connect evidence to the claim

Document 1a: Immigration in the Gilded Age: Change or Continuity? By Roger Daniels - Magazine of History
Volume 13 No 4 (1999)
 Data Source: US Department of Commerce, Historical Statistics of the United States (1975)

Document 1b: Immigration in the Gilded Age: Change or Continuity? By Roger Daniels - Magazine of History
Volume 13 No 4 (1999)

... Numbers, can only tell a fragment of the immigrant story, one must consider as well the following questions:
 1) Where did immigrants come from? Gilded Age immigrants came overwhelmingly from Europe, with
a shift over time toward Eastern and Southern Europe. Germans, British, Irish, Scandinavians, Italians,
and subjects of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires predominated.
2) Why did they leave? As with most migrants in American history, perceived economic/ social
advantage, persecution at home for minority groups, and compulsory military service were the major
push factors (conditions at home that encouraged immigration) for many. Pull factors (reasons for an
attraction to the United States) were mostly related to promised economic opportunity, availability of
farmland, and industrialization in the United States.
3) How did they get here? The development of transportation networks greatly influenced Gilded Age
immigration. As railroads with cheaper fares spread throughout Europe, places with transportation to
seaports multiplied. Oceanic transport and the advent of steamships also made travel easier.
4) Where did they settle?...Ever since the census began to count foreign born residents separately in 1850,
they have been more likely to reside in cities… Ethnic groups had their own patterns: Irish and
Canadians favored New England, Italians and Russians the middle Atlantic states, Germans the east
north central states, and Scandinavians the west north central states…
5) What did they do? Because the Gilded Age was an era of expanding industrialization, most immigrants
worked at industrial jobs, usually at the unskilled level...most immigrants took the hardest, lowest
paying, most hazardous industrial employment… It was not just immigrant men who worked.
Immigrant women and children were much more likely to be in the labor force than those who were
native-born.
6) How did they live? Most Gilded Age immigrants, like their predecessors, lived in ethnic enclaves in
both town and country whenever they could. There they could speak their own languages, worship with
familiar rituals, and generally recreate a version of the world they had left. The Chinese were confined
in parts of cities that became known as Chinatown….enclaves for Europeans developed names like
Little Italy.

Document 2: Western European Immigration - Details (Source: Advocates of Human Rights)

Country Push Factors Pull Factors

Germany Bestselling book in 1829 about Missouri by The north-central states (Wisconsin,
Gottfried Duden Minnesota and Michigan) promoted their
states for settlement among Germans with
Social and economic discrimination against funding and support from their state
Jews and Catholics legislatures

Young men left Germany to avoid mandatory

 military service

Austria Hungarian 'Forty-niners' came to the United America was the land of the free, provided
- States to escape retribution by Austrian amnesty to those seeking refuge after the
Hungary authorities after the defeat of the Hungarian Hungarian Revolution
Revolution of 1848
Developing economy in the United States
Overpopulation provided many jobs

Lack of jobs Farmable lands were available for displaced

Austrian farmers

Italy Southern Italy was economically depressed Jobs in a growing American economy

Overpopulation

Ireland Economic depression Protestant immigrants were drawn to the

overwhelming Protestant majority of the
Irish potato famine, in which almost 1.5 United States
million Irish men and women died of
starvation or disease Catholic unskilled laborers found thriving
American urban centers as a destination for
their work - the textile and construction
industries were specifically targeted for their
high demand for unskilled worker

Norway Avoid religious persecution While Norway had a shortage of jobs in the
1800s, America had a shortage of labor
Lack of jobs and economic depression
As America's economy grew, more workers
were needed - this opportunity for
employment drew many Norwegian
emigrants to America

Document 3: American History - HMH Textbook - Module 13 (2012)

Most of the immigrants who streamed into the United States in the late 19th century became city
dwellers because cities were the cheapest and most convenient places to live. As a result, many of the
large established cities - such as New York and Chicago - got larger.

Because of industrialization, cities also offered unskilled laborers steady jobs in mills and factories. By
1910, immigrants made up more than half the total population in 18 American cities. Rapid
improvements in farming technology during the second half of the 19th century was good news for
some and bad news for others. Inventions such as the McCormick reaper and steel plow meant fewer
laborers were needed to work the land. Many rural Americans moved from the country to the city
looking for work. This included African Americans, many of whom were former farmers. African
Americans were also drawn to the bigger cities looking for a life that was more peaceful and safer than
the racially discriminating southern states where violence against African Americans was on the rise.
As a result, job competition between African American and white immigrants began to rise, bringing
with it a different set of racial tensions.

The Americanization movement was designed to assimilate immigrants into American culture. Schools
and voluntary associations provided programs to teach immigrants skills needed to participate in
American democracy. Despite these efforts, many immigrants did not wish to abandon their traditions.
Often, ethnic groups of one kind lived in different compact neighborhoods and tried to preserve their
old world ways. For example, many Italians, having arrived in New York City, moved to Little Italy. A
new American culture began to develop in diverse cities - one that mixed the old world ethnic traditions
with the new American ways.

Working conditions in cities were often no better than living conditions. Having come from rural areas,
few new immigrants were skilled in modern manufacturing or industrial work. They often had no
choice but to take up low-paying, unskilled jobs in factories, mills, and sweatshops. Often, entire
families had to work just to make ends meet.

Housing and infrastructure became a major issue. As urban populations increased, new types of
housing were developed. Sometimes, two or three families occupied a single family home. These multi
family urban dwellings, called tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary. Cities tried to keep up
with the growth and expansion of the population.

Electric subways and streetcars were built in cities like New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Cities
struggled to keep up with the demands for new transportation and repair old ones. Safe drinking water
also became a major problem. Even in large cities like New York - indoor plumbing was rare.
Residents had to collect water in pails from city faucets and heat it for bathing and cooking. Finally, as
cities grew, so did the challenge of keeping them clean. Horse manure piled up on streets, sewage
flowed through open gutters, and factories released foul smoke into the air.

Immigration and Urbanization

Using Evidence
 What was the relationship between industrialization, immigration, and urbanization during the
Written Task
gilded age?

Task - Using the documents above, and your knowledge of US History, please complete the following:

Below are two images that illustrate relationships between immigration, industrialization, and urbanization. Evaluate to
what extent the relationship depicted in the image is true or false.
● Use both evidence from the documents above and your knowledge of US History to support your claims
● Evaluate each relationship in one paragraph, for a total of two paragraphs
***evaluate means to “examine and judge the significance, worth, or condition of; to determine the value of ”

Push & Pull Urbanization

Factors Cause
Immigration Result
d ed in

Pull
factor

Immigration Industrializatio
n
Pull
factor