{"id":23,"date":"2016-04-15T16:11:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T16:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2025-02-13T17:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:42:17","slug":"second-wave","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/index.php\/home\/eras-of-migration\/second-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Wave, 1880-1920"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1532704676007{margin-top: -40px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 10px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}&#8221;]\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>S.S. Canopic lands in Boston, 1920. Photo by Leslie Jones, courtesy of the Boston Public Library.<\/em><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text]<style>.vcex-heading.vcex_69e35f8e0b3bf{font-size:36px;}<\/style><div class=\"vcex-heading vcex-heading-plain vcex-module wpex-heading wpex-text-2xl vc_custom_1463771943413 vcex_69e35f8e0b3bf\"><span class=\"vcex-heading-inner wpex-inline-block\">Second Wave Immigration, 1880-1921<\/span><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1714143469808{border-bottom-width: 30px !important;padding-right: 30px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}&#8221;]During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Boston\u2019s industrial economy matured and expanded across the region. New manufacturing plants were built along the city\u2019s main railroad lines, and new subway and streetcar lines fueled the building of homes and factories in adjoining suburbs. The city of Boston itself continued to grow, more than doubling its population between 1880 and 1920. The foreign born made up 36 percent of those residents in the 1910s\u2014the city\u2019s peak immigration decade. Together with their native-born children, immigrants made up nearly three-quarters of Boston&#8217;s population.<\/p>\n<p>Industrial development in North America and Western Europe had ripple effects on local economies across the globe. As cheaper manufactured goods displaced local crafts, artisan livelihoods suffered in places like Ireland, the Mediterranean, and Eastern Europe. Overpopulation, agricultural crises, heavy taxation, and political and religious repression added to the pressures that drove many to leave. With so many countries now sending emigrants abroad, Boston\u2019s foreign-born population gradually shifted. Although the Irish continued to be the city\u2019s largest foreign-born group, Canadians, Russian Jews, and Italians all formed large communities by the early twentieth century. Smaller streams of migrants also came from China, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, and the West Indies.<\/p>\n<p>Newcomers took up residence in the city\u2019s established immigrant quarters in the North, South, and West Ends as many earlier Irish settlers left. Some of the latter, along with the native and German-born working class, relocated to outlying neighborhoods such as South Boston, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester, East Boston, and Charlestown. Social workers referred to these areas as \u201cthe zone of emergence\u201d\u2014places where skilled white immigrant workers and their families were settling alongside other ethnic groups and aspiring to middle-class standards of living. By the 1910s, newer immigrant groups would also begin moving to these areas as well as to fast-growing industrial suburbs such as East Cambridge, Chelsea, Somerville, Watertown, Malden, Quincy, Waltham, and Framingham.<\/p>\n<p>As in the first wave, many second wave male immigrants worked as day laborers on the streets, docks, and railroads. Moreover, construction work building new roads, bridges, subways, and streetcar lines was especially important in this period. Irish women continued to work in domestic service, but were gradually replaced by newcomers from Eastern Europe and black migrants from the South. Overwhelmingly, though, second wave immigrants\u2014both men and women\u2014found jobs in local factories making shoes, garments, textiles, rubber goods, chemicals, candy, and other products. The reorganization and mechanization of such industries meant that higher-paid skilled workers could be replaced by unskilled immigrant workers earning significantly lower wages. The hours were long, and working conditions were often grueling\u00a0and hazardous. To avoid the factory regime, some immigrants worked as peddlers, selling produce or dry goods on the streets. The most successful earned enough to start their own groceries or other retail businesses, and immigrant entrepreneurship thus became a common path of upward mobility. <a href=\"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/index.php\/home\/eras-of-migration\/test-page-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(Continue reading on the Restriction Era, 1924-1965)<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]<style>.vcex-teaser.vcex_69e35f8e0bcb4 .vcex-teaser-heading{color:#494949;}<\/style><div class=\"vcex-module vcex-teaser wpex-flex wpex-flex-col vc_custom_1617138873905 vcex_69e35f8e0bcb4\"><div class=\"vcex-teaser-media wpex-mb-20 wpex-text-center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/index.php\/home\/eras-of-migration\/test-page-2\/commision\/\" class=\"wpex-no-underline\"><img width=\"344\" height=\"393\" src=\"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Dillingham-Map.jpeg\" class=\"wpex-align-middle\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Dillingham-Map.jpeg 344w, https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Dillingham-Map-263x300.jpeg 263w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"vcex-teaser-content\"><h2 class=\"vcex-teaser-heading wpex-heading wpex-text-lg wpex-child-inherit-color\"><a href=\"http:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/index.php\/home\/eras-of-migration\/test-page-2\/commision\/\" class=\"wpex-no-underline\">US Immigration Commission investigates Boston, 1911<\/a><\/h2><div class=\"vcex-teaser-text wpex-mt-10 wpex-last-mb-0 wpex-clr\"><p>Read the US Congressional report investigating eight of Boston\u2019s immigrant neighborhoods at the turn of the century. Issued by the Dillingham Commission, the report provides a wealth of information on the city&#8217;s Irish, Italian, Jewish, and other immigrant groups.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_btn title=&#8221;Back to Eras of Migration&#8221; style=&#8221;3d&#8221; color=&#8221;inverse&#8221; size=&#8221;lg&#8221; align=&#8221;center&#8221; link=&#8221;url:http%3A%2F%2Fglobalboston.bc.edu%2Findex.php%2Fhome%2Feras-of-migration%2F||&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1532704676007{margin-top: -40px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 10px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}&#8221;] S.S. Canopic lands in Boston, 1920. Photo by Leslie Jones, courtesy of the Boston Public Library. [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1714143469808{border-bottom-width: 30px !important;padding-right: 30px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}&#8221;]During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Boston\u2019s industrial economy matured and expanded&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":40,"parent":56,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Second Wave, 1880-1920 - Global Boston<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/globalboston.bc.edu\/index.php\/home\/eras-of-migration\/second-wave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Second Wave, 1880-1920 - Global Boston\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1532704676007{margin-top: -40px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 10px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}&#8221;] S.S. Canopic lands in Boston, 1920. Photo by Leslie Jones, courtesy of the Boston Public Library. 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