6.8 Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age Key Terms

“Pushes”

negative factors in a person’s home country, such as poverty, political turmoil, or religious persecution, that drive them to emigrate

“Pulls”

Positive factors in another country, such as economic opportunities, political and religious freedom, that attract immigrants

“Old” immigrants

immigrants who came to the U.S. before the 1880s, primarily from northern and western Europe. They were often literate, skilled, and predominantly Protestant

“New” immigrants

immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after the 1890s, primarily from southern and eastern Europe. Usually poor, illiterate, and unfamiliar with democratic traditions

Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

a law passed in 1882 that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S., marking the first significant restriction on immigration based on nationality

streetcar suburbs

residential communities that developed along mass transit routes, allowing middle- and upper-class families to move away from crowded urban centers

tenement apartments

overcrowded and poorly ventilated inner-city housing where many urban poor, especially immigrants, lived

dumbbell tenements

a style of tenement building designed with narrow ventilation shafts to meet laws requiring windows in every room, but which still fostered overcrowded and unsanitary conditions

ethnic neighborhoods

urban areas where immigrants of similar background lived together, maintaining their cultural traditions, language, and social networks