Prompt: The experience of the new immigrants in the late 19 th century was little different from

the experience of preceding groups to the United States. Assess the validity of this statement.

During the late 19th century, many immigrants from all over Europe journeyed to
America. However, there were many conflicting feelings about all the immigrants. The statement
above is partially true because even though the reasons for immigrating and the persecution of
unfamiliar religions stayed the same, the number of groups being discriminated against increased
and it became harder to enter the country.
Both the old and new immigrants has similar reasons for going to America. First, they
were searching or more economic opportunities. America was growing as a country of industry,
so there were many available jobs. Second, the immigrants could get land in America very cheap.
Finally, the immigrants decided to move to America because of religious persecution in their
home country. This was especially the case for Jewish immigrants.
The experience of old and new immigrants were also similar because of the constant
discrimination against different religions. For the old immigrants, it was the Irish that were
discriminated against for being Catholic. For the new immigrants, almost every group was
discriminated against for being Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or other nontraditional religions.
America was mainly Protestant and had a difficult time accepting the religions of the immigrants.
There were even big organizations set up against the immigrants such as the Know-Nothing
Party and the America Protective Association, which was an organization against Catholics
voting.
The experiences of old and new immigrants were also different because of the increase in
groups being discriminated against after 1880. The main group out of the old immigrants that
experienced discrimination were the Irish, but almost every group of new immigrants were

treated unfairly. The new immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe, and their ideals
were completely unfamiliar to Americans. There was also a rise in isms during the period of new
immigration, such as socialism, communism, and anarchism. Americans became very afraid of
these isms and did not want them to spread with the new immigrants, so they suppressed the
immigrants and treated them unfairly.
The experiences of old and new immigrants were also different because new immigrants
had a harder time getting into the country. The old immigrants had barely any barriers when
traveling to America, but the borders got stricter as time passed. New immigrants were faced
with literacy tests, and only a set number of people could be allowed in at a time. These new
policies escalated all the way through the 1920s with the Emergency Quota Acts, which limited
the number of immigrants given entry into America over a certain period of time. New
immigrants had many more barriers than old immigrants when they came to America.