The immigration into the US was massive prior to the world war. One of the reasons for the massive flow into the US was because of the political unrest in other countries in comparison to America’s situation. In this case, many countries that had their citizens getting into America were experiencing civil wars at the time. For this reason, many of the people feared for their lives and had to move to safer locations and countries, the US being major destinations. In addition, some of the countries experienced some sort of famine. For instance, the Irish potato had declined in the amount in Ireland. For this reason, the level of famine in the countries affected went up. People had to move to places that produced more food and that would satisfy their hunger (Maier n.p). Many of the people, therefore, seek refuge in the US. Another reason for the massive immigration into the US was due to the need to raise the living standards. Many of the immigrants considered the US a better living place as it provided more and better-paying jobs. This was not the case in the native countries as job levels were low and poorly paid.
How the immigration changed
The trend of having a massive level of immigration changed after later. The main reason for the abrupt change of the trend is due to the eruption of the world war. Therefore, the US was not considered a safe place for the immigrants to take refuge. The other reason is due to the rising levels of famine in the country. As the war went on, crops and food were destroyed leaving the country with insufficient supply (Hook & Spanier 2018). The country could therefore not support more people from outside. The economic depression after the war made the US an unattractive country for the immigrants. The war lowered the US economic level, and so were the job opportunities diminished.
Works cited
Hook, S. W., & Spanier, J. (2018). American foreign policy since World War II. Cq Press.
Maier, C. S. (2015). Recasting bourgeois Europe: stabilization in France, Germany, and Italy in the decade after World War I. Princeton University Press.
