From the time of its incorporation during the early nineteenth century, Chicago has attracted many immigrants seeking jobs and business opportunities. With immigrants from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, Chicago has become a center of multiculturalism and enriched the United States with a diverse population.
From the 1840’s through the early twentieth century, oppression, religious persecution, a rapid increase in population, and a scarcity of land and employment and the resulting starvation forced many Europeans to leave their native lands in search of employment and the opportunity to improve their lives. Chicago, with its big
During the late nineteenth century, immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and eastern European countries–especially
Unskilled and for the most part non-English speaking, Chicago’s diverse immigrants took low-paying and often dangerous jobs requiring manual labor in the stockyards, meatpacking plants, and steel mills. They settled in areas close to their work and attempted to recreate the social and cultural life they had known in their homelands. Irish immigrants tended to settle in Bridgeport on the South Side and in Kilglubbin to the north and east of the stockyards in Canaryville.
Lithuanians also settled in areas of Bridgeport, while the Polish lived in Back of the Yards. The Italians
An elevated train passes over a Chicago street crowded with demonstrators marching in support of immigrant rights on May 1, 2006, during a nationwide day of immigrant action.
The flood of immigrants entering Chicago continued into the first decade of the twentieth century. In addition to the large group of Mexicans who fled the revolution in their home country, large numbers of Lithuanian
After World War II ended in 1945, the number of immigrants coming to Chicago increased again. With the Soviet Union occupying Eastern European countries, Chicago experienced a resurgence of immigrants from these countries, especially Lithuania. Liberalization of federal immigration laws in 1965 brought large numbers of immigrants from Asian countries, including South Korea, the Philippines, China, and India as well as from many Latin American countries. By the 1990’s, three-fourths of Chicago’s population growth was attributable to immigration. During the 1990’s, the number of Chicago residents who had been born in India
The composition of Chicago’s immigrant population changed significantly between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twenty-first century. Irish, German, Italian and Polish immigrants constituted the most numerous foreign-born segments of Chicago’s population during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 2000 U.S. Census found that Mexicans, Poles, and Indians constituted the city’s three largest foreign-born groups. Mexicans
Arredondo, Gabriela F. Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity, and Nation, 1916-39. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Close study of how Mexican immigrants’ revolutionary background affected their reaction to prejudice and how they established their own Mexican identity in Chicago. Excellent for explaining differences in experiences of immigrant groups. Candeloro, Dominic. Chicago’s Italians: Immigrants, Ethnics, Americans. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003. Traces the contributions of Chicago’s Italians to labor unions, politics, and religion, and treats changes brought to the Italian community by World War II. Koval, John, et al., eds. The New Chicago: A Social and Cultural Analysis. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. Broad study of immigrant groups who arrived in Chicago during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including the Poles. Also discusses Asian, Latino, and Arab immigrants in work and social roles. Pacyga, Dominic A. Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880-1922. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Excellent discussion of Polish immigrants working in Chicago’s steel mills, slaughterhouses, and meatpacking plants. Details how they created ethnic neighborhoods like those of Eastern Europe. Rangaswamy, Padma. Namasté America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. Concentrating on Chicago, Rangaswamy addresses the social conditions, ethnic identity, and ethnic relations of Indian immigrants in urban America.
Asian immigrants
Cultural pluralism
European immigrants
Great Irish Famine
Gresham-Yang Treaty of 1894
Hull-House
Illinois
The Jungle
Little Italies
Mexican immigrants