<P> Prior to the Gilded Age, the time commonly referred to as the old immigration saw the first real boom of new arrivals to the United States . During the Gilded Age, approximately 20 million immigrants came to the United States in what is known as the new immigration . Some of them were prosperous farmers who had the cash to buy land and tools in the Plains states especially . Many were poor peasants looking for the American Dream in unskilled manual labor in mills, mines, and factories . Few immigrants went to the poverty - stricken South, though . To accommodate the heavy influx, the federal government in 1892 opened a reception center at Ellis Island near the Statue of Liberty . </P> <P> These immigrants consisted of two groups: The last big waves of the "Old Immigration" from Germany, Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia, and the rising waves of the "New Immigration", which peaked about 1910 . Some men moved back and forth across the Atlantic, but most were permanent settlers . They moved into well - established communities, both urban and rural . The German American communities spoke German, but their younger generation was bilingual . The Scandinavian groups generally assimilated quickly; they were noted for their support of reform programs, such as prohibition . </P> <P> In terms of immigration, after 1880 the old immigration of Germans, British, Irish, and Scandinavians slackened off . The United States was producing large numbers of new unskilled jobs every year, and to fill them came number from Italy, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Greece, and other points in southern and central Europe, as well as French Canada . The older immigrants by the 1870s had formed highly stable communities, especially the German Americans . The British immigrants tended to blend into the general population . </P> <P> Irish Catholics had arrived in large numbers in the 1840s and 1850s in the wake of the great famine in Ireland when starvation killed millions . Their first few decades were characterized by extreme poverty, social dislocation, crime and violence in their slums . By the late 19th century, the Irish communities had largely stabilized, with a strong new "lace curtain" middle - class of local businessmen, professionals, and political leaders typified by P.J. Kennedy (1858--1929) in Boston . In economic terms, Irish Catholics were nearly at the bottom in the 1850s . They reached the national average by 1900, and by the late 20th century they far surpassed the national average . </P>

Where were immigrants coming from during the gilded age
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