German Immigration
"German immigration started in the 1830s, with some immigrants relocating from Pennsylvania. By 1860, there were more than 22,000 Germans in Chicago."
-Cynthia Linton
-Cynthia Linton
Reasons to Emigrate from Germany
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Racial Association
"They [Germans] worked in meatpacking plants, helped build the Michigan-Illinois Canal, and entered manufacturing and building trades." -The Ethnic Handbook of Bridgeport Video Clip Source: "Illinois During the Gilded Age, 1866-1896: Settlement and Immigration"
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"Like the Irish, Germans had first come as Illinois and Michigan canal laborers." -Ethnic History of Bridgeport |
The main reason for German immigration was for improved standards of living, which the immigrants sought to find in Illinois. They would go on to form formidable political and social entities.