The New Immigration, 1880–1920

Abstract

This chapter discusses the large numbers of immigrants who came to Chicago in the years between 1880 and 1920. It talks about the 2.5 million immigrants that were mostly from southern and eastern Europe. It also mentions the Irish and Germans that remained the largest immigrant groups in Chicago in 1880. The chapter draws attention to the pre-1880 immigrants, who were a product of what historians call the “old immigration” and quite different from the newcomers who constituted the “new immigration” of the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, and 1910s. It points out that most of the pre-1880 immigrants hailed from northern and western Europe. Many of them, like the Irish and British, already spoke English and were familiar with Anglo-American culture.