The United States has been notorious for welcoming peoples from all over the world onto its lands in order to facilitate the growth of a diverse nation and generations of families have traveled to America in search of creating lives more fulfilling than those they had escaped. During the years of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States allowed the highest rates of immigration in it’s history with groups from a number of different countries sought an escape from the economical, political, and religious hardships their own nations bequeathed. This massive influx of such a myriad of ethnicities irreversibly changed the evolution of the newly formed United States and challenged existing ideas and attitudes of what constituted an American citizen. In addition, immigrants were faced with the difficult task of finding equilibrium in what seemed, and often was, a world full of chaos.Although those traveling to America came from contrasting origins, the trials and tribulations they endured were much the same. Reasons for immigration, arrival, living and working conditions, socialization, and increasing assimilation into the American culture were experiences common to all immigrating groups. These areas of adjustment and the ways in which they evolved illustrates typical “immigrant experiences” and proves that this was an era that truly shaped the evolution of the world.In general, factors pushing immigrants to emigrate from their own countries take on similar themes across groups. Fleeing religious persecution, seeking political asylum, and escaping economic hardships were just a few of the common situations that influenced the search for improvement in America. Some immigrants began their journeys with plans of obtaining seasonal work to augment their meager incomes and most intended on returning to their native lands thereafter. As time went on and relatives already in the United States enticed families to...
