Industrial Era: Immigration

   After reading through chapter 5 of our book, The New Urban Sociology, it seemed that immigration was one of the main factors in the growth of American cities during the era of industrial expansion. Of course immigration isn’t the single most important thing that made cities what they are. The book talks about technological advancements such as the canal linking the Hudson River at Albany, the steel rail, and steam locomotive. Factories that were built helped city economies thrive to new proportions. Under the manufacturing section of our book, the author points out how the production of textiles, iron and steel, as well as the processing of agricultural products, and production of agricultural implements all increased several times more than what they were during the colonial period.

   I mentioned that immigration was one of the main factors in my opinion because without people none of these advances would have happened nearly as fast as it did for the US. Without a large labor force, the canal from the Hudson River to Albany would have taken longer than 8 years to have finished and New York might have experienced a worse decline as the frontier expanded. Railroad lines would have taken longer to expand across the US to link other cities together as well as transfer natural resources to the factories. New York only had a population of 123,700 in 1820, as seen on page 5.1 of our book, which more than doubled in 1850 to 515,500. By 1890, New York population became 1,515,300 (page 117 table 5.2) which was a larger increase over 1820 to 1850. A website I found (https://cascourses.uoregon.edu/geog471/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/WardImmigration.pdf) points out that Americas total population was about 17 million and increased to 105 million during the period of 1840 and the 1920s. All of these people had to be processed upon entering the US which they often did through the cities. Immigration caused a growth of jobs such as school teachers to teach the children entering the country to specific business dedicated to helping arrivals from foreign lands. The main thing that immigrants provided was the labor force for the expanding industry of America. What helped bring in the large amount of immigrants according to another website I found (http://classroom.synonym.com/did-immigrants-join-factories-late-1800s-through-1920s-15709.html) was that there was a job demand as industry flourished.  It also said that industry was also looking for cheap labor in which immigrants were willing to work for and that sometimes the factories they worked for would provide them with either free or cheap housing.

   The video we watched in class, Requiem of Detroit I feel shows the power that a labor force has on a city. On page 117 table 5.2 shows Detroit at a population of 205,900 in 1890 to which it increases to 993,100 in 1920. That was due to Detroit being the automotive center of America which drew the attention of many Americans and immigrants looking for work to the city. The city only grew more and more as automobiles became a larger part of the US thanks to Henry Ford doubling his minimum wage to five dollars at the time. As we saw in the movie, automobile industry hit many bumps and the headquarters for the car makers eventually left the city altogether. Since the main source of work disappeared from the city, so too did the workforce leave the city. Without the people, Detroit has fallen apart unable to grow economically since there people keeping leaving the city and planning to leave the city once they can.