In 1900, immigration to the United States was at an all-time high and rising. In the midst of the “second wave” of immigration (1883–1914), almost half a million people were arriving at America's shores each year. That rate of increase doubled in the two decades after 1900. Foreign-born residents made up almost 14 percent of the US population.1 These new Americans spread all over the country, enriching our cultural and economic geography. Many looked to settle on the remaining frontier lands in the Great Plains and upper Midwest, but most concentrated in cities, especially the entry ports of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as the industrial cities of the Great Lakes.2
It is not surprising, therefore, that most studies of the urban geography of immigrants center in the Northeast. The historical narrative has often focused on the tendency of immigrants to segregate and concentrate in ethnic...
