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Nativism and the End of the Mass Migration of the 1840s and 1850s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2012

Raymond L. Cohn
Raymond L. Cohn
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics, Illinois State University, Campus Box 4200, Normal, IL 61790–4200. E-mail: [email protected].
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Extract

In 1855 the volume of immigration to the United States dropped precipitously, signaling the end of the first mass migration of Europeans. Although other work blames the decline on an economic depression, the outbreak of the Crimean War, or the improvement of conditions in Europe, this article argues that the rise of nativism was the initiating cause of the decline. This result is important because it affects our view of the factors that have cyclical effects on the volume of immigration.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 2000 , pp. 361 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2000

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