The Growth of Business in America - Assignment Example

Immigrants an important source of labor for the growth of business in America, circa nineteenth century Introduction A large number of the Americans may take immigration to be problems they faced that affected their culture. During the immigration, the new immigrants came to America introducing new languages, introducing new religion values and culture, and they introduced new foods that were new to the Americans. All this happened during the nineteenth century. It is true that the immigrants did not go to America in search of new culture, politics or in search of freedom. A large number of the immigrants migrated to America in search of employment. It is the reason as to why most of the people from various countries migrated to America during the nineteenth century. America was able to offer better employment opportunities and had the best advancement. The development of America in terms of employment and advancement was high as compared to the former homes of the immigrants. It is true that the immigrants were a source of labor in the country despite of their impacts that affected the country’s economy. During the last days of the eighteenth century, there were a moderate number of immigrants that migrated to America. The main source of the immigrants was Britain, Ireland, German and some parts of France and Canada (Griffith & David 22). During the nineteenth century, the number of the immigrants gradually increased creating a major transfer from the South East. A number of native born Americas were heavily affected by the immigration creating a bulk of new shifted immigrants from the Italians, and the Jews affecting the cultural background of the Native Americans. With the macro economic forces, Englishmen and Germans were forced to migrate from their homelands in the nineteenth century and a majority operated from the southern part of Europe while some were from the Eastern part. All this led to the development of America creating an industrial revolution. Due to the immigration there resulted a number of impacts into the American labor. In the year 1920, approximately twenty million immigrants entered into the United States and a large number of them were searching for jobs in the industries (Griffith & David 24). With the large influx of the immigrants searching for jobs, it led to the growth of the country’s economy. The growth was largely experienced towards the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. All the growth could have not been experienced if not for the larger immigration populations. A majority of the immigrants were young men having age of eighteen to twenty three years. Most of the families of the immigrants did not have large number of children and instead they had a large number of adults. Such group of people added value to the economic growth of America. There is a disagreement on the same point by scholars claiming that the native born citizens are the ones that contributed to the economic growth. They argue that the macro economic effects of the immigrants were more complicated than the American economy that was modernized. A large number of the immigrants in America were unskilled labors. It is also true that a large number of them were looking for low paying jobs that did not require more of the thinking. The wages of the low paying jobs were affected since the number of the low skilled labors increased affecting the native born workers in the same lack jobs. The high skilled workers in the country were also affected due to the introduction of the immigration that affected the unskilled industrial workers. The argument is still on debate whether the highly skilled craftsmen were also affected. They were also affected since the immigrants were unskilled and they always accepted any low amount despite of the nature of the work. Some industrial areas preferred to offer jobs to the unskilled immigrants who always accepted their offer. An example is a cobbler that offered work to the unskilled labors because of the low pay he offered. It could make a competitor to start a new shoe factory. Such practices affected the native born workers in the industries of America. Not all the industries practiced such behaviors and this was conducted at specific times (Anderson & Stuart 15). With the great labor introduced by the immigrants in America’s economic growth, most of the businessmen and entrepreneurs in the country enjoyed the benefits. Most of the immigrants that migrated to America had the anxiety of achieving in life because they had their last hopes in the country. Once they arrived in America, they were able to work hard and prosper. They all began from penniless to something believing that they were to make it. One of the examples is the Scotsman, Andrew Carnegie who arrived in the United States as an immigrant. He was poor and penniless but with hard work he was able to venture into the steel industry. He later became rich and powerful. Not only Andrew, a large number of immigrants became successful in America thus raising the country’s economy. There was a drastic increase of successful immigrants towards the end of the nineteenth century in the country. They included Jewish immigrants that discovered some of the most important industries in the country. It includes the motion pictures in the entertainment industry and other foreign born entrepreneurs like Samuel Goldwyn and Warner brothers (Fairlie &Robert 45). The entertainment industry grew up to be one of the best in Hollywood. Another example is A.P Gianinni who was the owner of an immigrant bank that was very little by nineteenth century. The bank was serving fellow immigrants in Francisco at the north beach of the enclave of the Italians. In the year 1920, the bank improved, extended and began serving all the ethnic constituencies. It is unbelievable that the little bank still improved to be one of the most improving banks in America that exists since date commonly known as “Bank of America.” This is a typical example of major benefits of the immigrants in the country rising the economy and living standards of the country. It is the labor of the immigrants that led to the success of the bank through A.P Gianinni in order to improve the country’s main economy (Fairlie, Robert 54). During the nineteenth century, America could offer “ownership of land” one thing that most of the countries were not able to offer. Due to the increase of the immigrants into the country, there were a large number of people that settled displacing some of the Indian lands. Civilization was also extended and some portions of land were freely given to the immigrants due to the Homestead Act that was introduced in the year 1862 (Landau & Elaine 16). Any person that wanted to make use of an idle land at the western was freely given a one sixty acre of land. With this, America was the best choice to the immigrants instead of other countries in Europe. It led to more immigrants coming into America. It is even amazing that the federal government was in support of the immigration point thus supporting the immigrants to come to America. With the introduction of the Civil war, some states of America like Minnesota and Lowa dispatched the agents of immigration to their virtues by advertising and organizing campaigns. The private railroad companies offered free travel of the European immigrants into America. It made America to be a nation of immigrants. It is the importance of the immigrants in America that made the America to facilitate the welcoming of the other immigrants especially the Europeans. With the large number of immigrants in America, agricultural land was abolished and the industrial jobs took over. This led to an enormous economic growth of the country till the introduction of the Civil war that strengthened America to be a powerful industrial giant. With the new technologies introduced, new jobs were also introduced helping the immigrants to secure job opportunities. The jobs only required little skills since the machines did the hard part. This was the perfect opportunity for the immigrants to secure jobs since a large number of them were unskilled. It also made America to pay reasonable wages that were higher than other European countries. Unfortunately, this changed in the late nineteenth century. The industrial employment was never the same since working hours became long, and the pay decreased leaving the immigrants with low benefits. Even with all this, the employment was a better loaf than unemployment experienced in other parts of Europe. 57 percent of workers employed at the industries were foreigners (Swain & Carol 25). The same industries were on top developing the country. The immigrants’ population continued to increase in the industries and they were supported by the government. This introduced the Transcontinental Railway in the history which was responsible for creating the immigrant labor. It was the best infrastructure developed project of the century in history. With the success of the immigrants in America, a majority of them labor in the country owning a majority of the industries garments. They always worked hard despite of the low wages and harsh conditions. This made most of the immigrants to save more and achieve their targets. This includes the upward mobility of owning a piece of land and starting a small business. Conclusion The introduction of the immigrants led to the overall growth of the country and as a result the cost of the goods consumed was decreased. The cheap labor by the immigrants led to the improvement of the middle class people by raising their incomes thus reducing the cost of living in the country. Eventually, America was able to accommodate every class of people till today. The immigrants had an impact on America’s economy creating both positive and negative effects. A large number of the effects were entirely positive with the overall growth of America, growth of the middle class families. It is also negative that the wages in the industrial areas were affected thus affecting the working class people especially the native born unskilled workers. Works Cited Anderson, Stuart. Immigration. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2010. Internet resource. Borjas, George J. Immigration Economics. , 2014. Print. Fairlie, Robert W. Estimating the Contribution of Immigrant Business Owners to the U.s. Economy. Washington, D.C.: SBA Office of Advocacy, 2008. Internet resource. Griffith, David. (mis)managing Migration: Guestworkers Experiences with North American Labor Markets. , 2014. Print. Landau, Elaine. The Homestead Act. New York: Childrens Press, 2006. Print. Swain, Carol M. Debating Immigration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Read More