Immigration and the economy

Life on the Farm

Immigration to America, went up and down throughout the period of the Reconstruction — depending on the state of the American economy. Overall, however, the era of Reconstruction was a period of large scale immigration. During the 1840s and 1850s, most of the immigrants to the United States came from Germany and Ireland. By 1880s, large scale immigration began to come to the US from Eastern and Southern Europe. Large numbers of Jewish and Italian immigrants began arriving during this period. Immigrants during this period tended to settle in the major cities, providing a steady pool of labor for the expanding industries.