American History

Immigration refers to the movement of people from the country of domicile to another country. The immigration may be legal or illegal. Most of the reasons that may trigger people to move from their country of origin is search for better life or security especially if their countries are not safe. America the promised land as it is referred by many, is the most preferred destination by many immigrants as it is high in technology development. It is also a super power and this gives the immigrants a feeling of safety.

An immigrant is a person who migrates from his country of domicile. The immigrants can migrate legally or illegally. Reasons for people to immigrate are vast some emigrate in search of refuge from their unsafe countries while others are driven by economic reasons. The major reason for people to emigrate is to search for better life in the foreign country. America is one of the most targeted destinations by the immigrants. Most immigrants prefer America as their country of refuge because of its liberal dispensation.  It is termed as the land of opportunity as a result of the attractive employment opportunities as well as the high standard of living.

One of the impactful immigrations is the Russians immigration between 1890 and 1921.  During this period, large numbers of Russians immigrated to America as a result of war waged by the Southern part of Russia against the Jewish community which led to the death of Alexander the 2nd. A big number of them settled in the city of New York and also in Pennsylvania. This immigration was as a result of industrial revolution which took place during that period. This as a result led to increased job opportunities thus leading to more people migrating to America to take advantage of the job opportunities. Most of these immigrants were not skilled which resulted in acceptance of low wages. They sometimes were not accepted by some unions due to lack of skill in their work hence opted to joining the International Workers of the world (IWW). Later one activist from the trade unions named Abraham Caham tried convincing them to join the American Socialist Party (ASP).

 Immigration of Russians also contributed to science and technology developments and also saw the birth of experts in different fields like engineer Igor Sikorsky and biologist named Selman Walksman. By the year 1920, over 3,250,000 immigrants had immigrated to America according to the census conducted that year. Lack of control on the immigrants level led to an immense increase in Americas population.

American government alleged that this state of affairs was squarely attributable to uncontrolled immigration and an urgent remedy to this problem had to be sought as it had a negative impact on the economy. Additionally, most Americans felt that the immigrants were taking their jobs away. Americans sometimes felt that the fact that Russians were repatriating most of their income to their country could have a negative impact on its economy in the future like increasing wealth of their country hence outdoing the Americas economy. American government was also under pressure to provide amenities for the increased population.

Anti-immigration strategies were put in place by America to check on the increasing number of immigrants. The strategies included payment of low wages to the immigrants citing on their less skill in the industry operations. They were not also allowed to join the labor unions because of their limited skills and therefore they could not fight for their rights when they felt were being deprived of their rights. This strategy discouraged would-be immigrants and helped in checking their number.

Nevertheless, in the long run, immigrants contributed greatly to the growth of the American economy. This was because the immigrants large population provided labor to build many industries at a low cost hence leading to reduced operational costs and increased income which had an overall increase in the national income. These economies of scale also trickled to other sectors of the economy resulting in a robust economic environment.