Immigration and the Economy

Although religious motivation significantly impacted the founding and early development of American colonies, economic motives outweighed religious ones beginning fairly early in our country’s history. This is reflected not only in the influx of voluntary immigrants looking for a better life, but also in the importation of indentured servants or slaves to fill the labor requirements of colonists ’ farms and businesses. Immigration was at the core of nation-building, so much so that the Declaration of Independence listing the wrongdoings of King George III alleged that the British government had hindered and obstructed immigration into the colonies.1 Labor Force Requirements Over the course of American history, numerous businesses have targeted specific immigrant groups for employment. For instance, they brought in the Chinese to work on the railroads, the Irish, in many parts of the country, to work in railroad building or mining, and Eastern and Southern Europeans for manufacturing enterprises. Overall, the flow of immigration throughout the 19th and early 20th century was directly tied to the strength or weakness of the American economy; levels of immigration fluctuated widely in response to economic cycles of boom and panic in this country.2 Generally, peak immigration flows coincided with periods of fundamenta