June 2015 1-01: Explain why immigration into the USA increased in the years 1890 to 1910. [12 marks]

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June 2015 1-01: Explain why immigration into the USA increased in the years 1890 to 1910. [12 marks]

Causes

  • 'pull factor': the continuing growth of the American economy and the high demand for labour
  • 'pull factor': encouragement to new migrants from those who had already arrived
  • 'pull factor': widespread belief in the idea of the US as ‘land of opportunity’.
  • 'push factor': persecution on religious or political grounds (such as refugees from Tsarist Russia)
  • 'push factor': desperation caused by economic hardship (such as the 3 million who emigrated from southern Italy).

Effects

Overall summary

The focus of this question is on the surge of immigration into the United States from 1890.  Rates of immigration were already high before 1890 but significantly increased in the following two decades.  Answers should explain this increase in the arrival of ‘new immigrants’, many of them from southern and eastern Europe, rather than the earlier waves of immigration.

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