Introduction: Immigration and the Rise
of Urban Industrial America
“Central to the formation of modern North American society has
been the growth of a vast urban industrial complex, extending from
the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes region, which began to
develop in the 1870s and reached maturity in the 1920s.”1
Mark Fenton/Bread for the World
Following the Civil War, the economic force that developed in places such as Baltimore, Detroit, and the Midwestern breadbasket was fueled by immigrant laborers and
entrepreneurs from places such as Ireland, Italy, and Russia.
Between 1870 and 1920, about 25 million immigrants arrived
in America, transforming backwoods trading outposts into
urban-industrial dynamos.2 By the mid-20th century, immigrant laborers and entrepreneurs contributed to making
Detroit automobiles, Pittsburgh steel, and Iowa corn into
global brands. But by the 1970s, much of America’s Northeastern and Midwestern urban industrial base was eroding,
and population decline followed. In 1950, Detroit was the
fourth-largest city in the country with 1.8 million residents.
By 2010, it had a population of 713,777— a population decline
of 61 percent in 60 years.3
Cities with vibrant immigrant Irish, Jewish, and Italian
neighborhoods began to empty as natives and immigrants
alike moved to the suburbs or left the region completely: The
Rust Belt was born. But even as “urban decay” entered the
national lexicon, a new wave of immigrants trickled into the
Rust Belt. What began during the 1980s grew in the 1990s
and 2000s, as immigrants moved into cities that offered
Immigrants in the Rust Belt often work in the building trades. In this photo a
worker installs a solar roof on a house.
2 Briefing Paper, October 2013
low-skill jobs, affordable housing, entrepreneurial opportunities, and sometimes even a welcoming attitude toward
newcomers.
Today, in the midst of a policy debate over the largest
potential immigration reform in 50 years, cities still struggling in the post-industrial economy, particularly in the
wake of the Great Recession, are looking to immigrants for
economic revitalization. While immigration alone is not a
sufficient tool for urban renewal, some of America’s blighted
cities see newcomers as a necessary part of their revival.
There is a growing body of research on the contributions of
immigrants to economic growth and job creation, including
manufacturing jobs, for U.S.-born workers. Immigrants have
also proven to be “pioneers” in neighborhood revitalization:
as they resettle abandoned areas, they are followed by U.S.born residents.4
Immigration as Urban Repopulation
“For cities…outside the Sun Belt, population decline is the norm
without immigration. Moreover, immigration explains all of the
growth that does occur…The data say that…to stabilize [urban populations], immigrants are essential.”5
The Ellis Island of the South
During the mid-19th century, Baltimore was a boomtown. In 1860, with 212,418 residents, it was the thirdlargest city in the United States after New York and
Philadelphia. The city was building 2,000 houses a year to
accommodate the population growth, which was spurred
by new jobs in the shipbuilding, railroad, textile, and construction industries.6 Fells Point in