Which statement best describes New Immigrants?

• A. From Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia; Catholic and Jewish; lived in cities and worked in factories
• B. From Northern and Western Europe; Protestant; farmers; lived in the countryside
• C. From Africa; various professions; settled inland
• D. From Canada; merchants; coastal towns

Answer: (A)

New Immigrants refers to the wave that arrived in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. Many were Catholic or Jewish, and they moved into cities, taking factory jobs as the country industrialized. This pattern stands in contrast to earlier arrivals from Northern and Western Europe who were mostly Protestant and often entered the country with rural, farming backgrounds.

So the statement that best describes New Immigrants captures both where they came from and how they lived and worked in the United States—urban destinations and industrial labor, with Catholic or Jewish faith. The other descriptions don’t fit that urban, factory-based, regionally diverse immigrant wave.