Leaving Europe

Each immigrant left Europe for their own reasons, leaving behind communities and putting friendships and relationships on hold indefinitely. Before 1880, immigration to the United States flowed primarily from Ireland, Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. After 1880, the vast majority of immigrants to the United States came from Eastern and Southern Europe, especially the countries of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, and Russia.  

Many left due to poor economic conditions or increased food insecurity. At this time, landowning elites in Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia were transforming their agricultural practices, reorienting their production to meet the demands of voracious industrial markets in Western Europe. Productivity increased, and alongside it, increasing numbers of people began to seek more profitable employment as workers in industrial centers. As agricultural products, such as wheat and cattle, began to draw a greater profit far away in large urban centers, rural populations became further integrated into the larger European market, which experienced periodic economic shocks and convulsions (1). Spikes and dips in the price of commodities could now dictate the futures of entire communities. At the same time, changes in the environment produced famine in different regions, contributing to periods of massive exodus. Galicia-Lodomeria, a region then in Austria-Hungary, experienced 6 famines from 1847 and 1889, spurring the exodus of large numbers of Poles, Ruthenians, and Jews, many of whom came to the US. In Italy, social unrest, natural disasters, population growth, and new land regimes spurred many rural populations in the south to emigrate to destinations including the US, Brazil, and Argentina (2).

Others left for political reasons, persecuted at home by conservative and autocratic elites. In Russia, Jews experienced extreme social and political marginalization. They were only permitted to live in the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, modern-day Belarus and Ukraine, in an area known as the Pale of Settlement. Within this area, they were the victims of periodic outbursts of anti-Semitic violence known as pogroms, involving the killing and destruction of entire Jewish communities. After the assassination of Alexander II in 1881, political opponents of the tsarist regime, including anarchists and socialists, were also forced into exile.  

For all immigrants, the journey to the United States was long and precarious. Travel had to take place via boat, most often through the services of large steamship companies leaving industrialized ports in Western Europe. Major ports included Liverpool (England), Queenstown/Cobh (Ireland), Le Havre (France), Antwerp (Belgium), Hamburg (Germany), Triest (Austria-Hungary), Naples (Italy), Genoa (Italy), and Palermo (Italy). Each port often served immigrants from particular regions, with steamship companies competing to attract different clients from all over the continent. British companies, such as the White Star and Cunard Lines, controlled a large portion of the transatlantic market, while the French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique prided itself on package transit options, integrating train and boat services. German companies, such as the Hamburg America Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd, were given preferential treatment by the German government to compete with British offers. The Belgian-American Red Star Line also proved popular among travelers to New York. Getting to these ports could prove arduous, as immigrants had to navigate complex border restrictions. German authorities routinely stopped migrants who wanted to use non-German ships to travel to America from entering Germany (3). 

Ship conditions could range from bad to worse for those without large amounts of cash. Most immigrants could only afford third-class, or “steerage” rates, forcing them into the worst rooms and facilities at the bottom of the ship. The trip took five days on average (4), with crowded conditions being the norm. According to one observer of the Norddeutscher Lloyd’s Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1905, there was “neither breathing room below nor deck room above, and the 900 steerage passengers... are positively packed like cattle... The stenches become unbearable, and many of the emigrants have to be driven down.” (5) Upon finally reaching New York or another port of entry, passengers transferred to barges, carrying with them all of their belongings. These barges then ferried them to Ellis Island.